Vaping Inside - Live Nation and Academy Music Group are ready to welcome us in!

Hi everyone! It's been a while hasnt it? How is your vaping going?

Have you heard the news that it's just been announced that a major UK electronic cigarette manufacturer, Blu, owned by Lorillard the 3rd largest tobacco company in the USA, has teamed up with Academy Music Group (AMG) and Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) leading UK Live music venue owner/operators and ticketing agencies who host some of the biggest music and entertainment acts. Through this partnership Blu will promote their e-cig brand and products and AMG & LNE will allow vaping in 15 of venues across the UK.

Blu CEO Jacob Fuller has said that this new partnership provides them with an ‘ideal opportunity to reach a huge audience of adult music fans across the UK who don’t want to continue missing their favourite songs to smoke and who will now be free to enjoy the pleasure of both and without the tobacco smoke’.

Blu are aligning themselves very much with the adult music and entertainment sector this summer travelling the UK attending the major festivals and events, hosting parties and providing free product samples. It is a fabulous marketing strategy advertising their brand to huge numbers of people. Snaring the ever growing numbers of us who are choosing to vape instead of smoke, tying them to their brand.

Whilst this could seriously damage the income possibilities of those small independent companies we’ve grown so fond of and relied upon; who have been manufacturing and selling e-cig products in the UK for the last few years; toiling away, laying the pathway along which many ex-smokers have travelled; who have been the source of all our supplies and who have been largely responsible for the huge success of the industry, as a vaper I also have to applaud them.

The fact is that these major players with deep pockets and large purses have enormous power. They can easily finance massive operations like this one. They have ample funds with which to obtain the necessary and horrendously expensive licenses to comply with government legislation. These things the small independent businesses wont be able to do and that pains me. But the reason I applaud them is because, as far as I can see, it’s got to mean very good news as far as vaping is concerned. Their power and support, albeit born of a wish to profit hugely from us, will also encourage acceptance and openness to vaping everywhere. In places where at the moment vapers are being pushed out and away from.

Are you welcomed in at your local?

Those of you who have been vaping for a while will surely have noticed that where once we vaped freely and openly, more and more frequently now we’re being asked not to. Rather than being welcomed into the fold and our effort to not smoke applauded, instead we are treated like smokers and asked to vape outside most likely in the designated smoking zone we’ve strived to avoid. It isn't illegal to vape inside but many proprietors are not allowing people to use their e-cigs inside their establishments and exercising their rights to do so.

But the power of this partnership is challenging these obstacles; I hope that they continue to do so. I hope that their openness will help to fight off the stigma with which vapers are being viewed. If these large venues allow vaping, then the smaller venues may follow their lead because it is good for their businesses and profits. The pubs and clubs rather than pushing us away, will open their doors and their eyes and welcome us in.