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Janie Wilson
Mr, Newman
English 101: Rhetoric
6 October 2014
E-Cigarettes: The Dangerous New Alternative
Tobacco products such as cigarettes kill millions of people every year because of the
harmful chemicals they contain. Because of that, many people turn to the alternative ECigarettes, not knowing the toxic effects they cause. However, electronic cigarettes have been
shown to do significant damage to ones health. In the September 29, 2014 Time magazine
article, " Big Tobacco is Ramming Home the Message About the Dangers of E-Cigarettes", Rishi
Iyengar successfully uses strong factual statements and credible sources to show how Big
Tobacco companies are warning people about the dangers of e-cigarettes
Iyengar begins by quoting a warning label on the back of an e-cigarette package made by
Altria (a Marlboro manufactured company), that says that Nicotine is highly addictive and habit
forming. He also explains that another tobacco company, MarkTen, has a warning on the back
of their e-cigarette products that reiterates that e-cigarettes are not an effective way to wean off
addiction to regular cigarettes. The goal of MarkTen is to openly and honestly communicate
about health effects, says spokesman of Altria, William Phelps. Warnings on the back of ecigarettes are present, but it is unknown if they are truly convincing people that they are doing
harm to their bodies by smoking them.
Within the second part of the article, there is an argument made by Dr. Robert K. Jackler,
a professor and researcher on e-cigarette advertising at the Stanford School of Medicine, where
he argues, Is this part of a noble effort for the betterment of public health, or a cynical business

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strategy? It seems by the efforts of e-cigarette companies to warn consumers about the dangers
of their products, that all they want is for the health of their buyers to be the number one priority
of their sales. As heard before, MarkTen spokesman William Phelps said that the goal of his
company is to openly and effectively communicate the dangerous health effects of e-cigarettes.
Jackler then claims he only has one question for Phelps.Why wouldnt you warn very toxic
nicotine on your cigarettes, when you do so on e-cigarettes? With this question proposed,
companies now have to think about the more used product by our society today which are regular
cigarettes, and how they are going to warn cigarette users about the even more harmful effects of
them.
Iyengar ends the article telling readers that experts say the strategy is low-risk for big
tobacco companies because many people dont read the warnings on the back of e-cigarettes
anyway. I myself am not a smoker nor will I ever be, but it is common knowledge that cigarettes
are harmful to ones body. E-cigarettes on the other hand are not as well known by people. The
attempts made by big tobacco companies to inform people about the damaging effects of ecigarettes may be ignored by e-cigarette buyers, but the efforts are present and cannot be argued
against. Because the facts are present on the back of labels, no one can claim that they did not
know the effects of e-cigarettes. Iyengar is successful in the logos appeal because he states facts
and credible information from many tobacco companies about their efforts to warn people about
the unhealthy, risky, and destructive effects of e-cigarettes.

Works Cited

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Iyengar, Rishi. "Tobacco Companies Step Up E-Cigarette Warnings." Time. Time, 29
Sept. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.