‘Proudly Canadian’ and ‘no Big Tobacco affiliation’: STLTH e-cigarette advertising and positioning in Canada

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. The global ecigarette industry’s estimated worth was $21 billion in 2021, with Canada identified as one of the world’s topselling markets. In Canada, market tracking data reveal that ecigarette sales made at convenience stores increased by 52% from 2019 to 2020. Specialty vape shops were initially the standard for acquiring ecigarettes, but convenience stores are emerging as key retailers. Euromonitor International’s market research—commissioned by Health Canada—indicates: ‘The rapid evolution of the vaping market in Canada is unprecedented. The entry of closed devices and increased accessibility to vaping products have had a dramatic impact on the Canadian market and fueled a period of growth through 2019’. The report goes on to identify that the key factors fostering growth of the Canadian ecigarette market include new retail channels (ie, the addition of convenience stores that made ecigarettes more widely available), the introduction of nicotine salts (enabling highnicotine deliveries that are perceived as smooth—not too harsh—by users), a variety of flavour offerings and the development of closed advanced vaping systems wherein a pod (cartridge) comes prefilled with vaping liquid. Such vaping systems are for limited use, wherein once the pod becomes empty, it is discarded and replenished with a new one. The sale of prefilled pods offers producers highprofit margins relative to the devices. According to Euromonitor International’s report, the key competitors in the Canadian market for this product category include JUUL, Vype/Vuse, Logic, Blu and STLTH. Still, Logic and Blu have since been discontinued in Canada. 4 Moreover, while British American Tobacco initially marketed Vype in Canada, it has been replaced by Vuse in an apparent effort to standardise and globalise marketing efforts for the ecigarette brand. 7 The disposable ecigarette market in Canada is now highly consolidated, being dominated by Vuse and JUUL (comprising an approximate 95% market share), with brands such as STLTH identified as competing for the remaining market share. STLTH’s key competitors are ecigarettes produced by multinational tobacco companies. To differentiate their brand, recent ads for STLTH—circulating in Canada Convenience Store News with a targeted readership of convenience store operators—have highlighted that the company is ‘proudly Canadian’ with ‘no Big Tobacco affiliation’ (figures 1 and 2). STLTH— the brand name—is the most prominent copy of both ads. The brand name resembles the word stealth, which as an adjective describes aircraft designed in accordance with technology. STLTH suggests innovation and high technology while also having the potential to imply reduced harm or discreetness. The discreetness of ecigarettes—being easily hidden or resembling a USB flash drive—has prompted the notion of ‘stealth vaping’ and concerns about students doing so at school. As a noun, stealth refers to actions that are cautious and surreptitious. Figure 1 shows a mountainous landscape—the predominant visual in the ad—which conveys ruggedness and freedom (with the vastness of space). Evian water and Kokanee beer exemplify brand communication in which the depiction of mountains points to the product’s place of origin; the product is likely to be seen as pure, pristine and