How many of you have heard about the Velo Sound Station? Surely, there would be a lot of ‘Yes’ to this question as it was a very hyped musical program.
Following the concept of the much-appraised music programs like cokes studio, NescafeBasement et, the First season of this music star-studded program was launched 3 months back in November 2020. It received a great response from Musically inclined People in Pakistan.
Moreover, featuring the music biggies from Sajjad Ali to subcontinent’s Rockstar Atif Aslam to Youth sensation Aima Baig, it was like icing on the cake for music devotees.
But how many of you know about the Velo? What is this product? and what is it used for? Unfortunately, the “Yes” to this question are not as much as the previous one.
What is Velo?
For those of you who don’t know, Velo is a Tobacco derived nicotine product that comes in the form of nicotine pouches.
The British American Tobacco BAT, one of the world’s largest cigarette companies, has launched this Nicotine pouch in Pakistan recently. The same company has launched other similar products in different countries around the world like Lyft pouches in Kenya, Glo, a heated tobacco product, in Spain, etc.
Investigation of Beauru of Investigative Journalism
BAT has told regulators around the world that its new products, including heated tobacco and oral nicotine, are for current adult smokers.
But a recent investigation by London-based the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. reveals that the featuring of influencers of each country and huge sponsorships make clear, BAThas launched an aggressive £1 billion marketing campaign that leans heavily on social media, concerts, and sporting events like Velo Sound Station in Pakistan.
This could have the effect of encouraging young people to pick up a potentially deadly tobacco habit that still kills 8 million people a year, notwithstanding long-established rules aimed at preventing this.
Several of these tactics, employed in different countries around the world, have attracted a new generation including non-smokers to highly addictive nicotine and tobacco products – and that this seems to be a consequence of BAT’s plans for yet more growth, reveals the investigation.
These tactics include presenting nicotine products as cool and aspirational in a glossy youth-focused advertising campaign; paying social media influencers to promote e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, and tobacco. In Pakistan, they have till now endorsed all the big names of Tv, Film, and social media like Shehriyar Munawar, Ahad Raza Mir, Ayesha Omar, and the list goes on.
BAT told the Bureau: “All marketing activity for our products will only be directed towards adult consumers and is not designed to engage or appeal to youth … All our marketing is done responsibly, in strict accordance with our International Marketing Principles, local laws, legislation, and platform policies … We only use influencers in some countries where it’s permitted, and social media platform policies allow.”
Velo Nicotine Marketing Campaigns in Pakistan
In Pakistan, the Bureau discovered that samples of BAT’s Velo nicotine pouches have been given away free. This seemed to be part of a large-scale campaign where young brand reps, working on commission, handed out samples at parties, shopping malls, tea shops, restaurants, and tobacconists.
There are concerns that the brand has also actively encouraged non-nicotine users to take up Velo. One man in Pakistan told an official Velo social media account that he was using nicotine for the first time in the form of Velo. Velo responded by saying it was “so excited” and asked for feedback. “Lit af”, the man responded. BAT denies carrying out any inappropriate marketing activity in Pakistan.
One 17-year-old in Pakistan told the Bureau that they were offered a free sample without being asked for proof of age. BAT said it hands free samples only to adult smokers.
The target may not have changed, but the tactics have been updated for the digital age.
In Pakistan, BAT turned to TikTok for its #OpenTheCan ad campaign for Velo. Elsewhere the company used online influencers; data analysis by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids shows that Facebook and Instagram posts from 40 influencers using Velo’s hashtags have been viewed 13.1m times and have a potential audience of over 181 million.
BAT said all the influencers it works with provide validated evidence that the vast majority of their followers are adults. Pakistann has a light-touch approach when it comes to regulating nicotine pouches. That’s the reason that the big names are endorsing and advertising these Nicotine pouches without thinking about their moral and social responsibility for a minute.
Nicotine Usage and Campaigns in other Countries
In Kenya, the alleged availability of Lyft pouches through vending machines at major shopping centers prompted the Ministry of Health to write to the Pharmacy and Poisons Board. In the letter, the ministry described the practice as “contrary to the law”. BAT said: “Our Kenyan subsidiary, BAT Kenya, strongly denies it has ever sold Lyft pouches in automatic vending machines in Kenya.”
The young and the beautiful of Sweden are posting about a new craze: ice-white nicotine pouches that you put between your gums and teeth. Called Velo (or Lyft in some markets), they come in various flavors. Adverts emphasize them as discreet.
The facts suggest otherwise. Nicotine is toxic to the developing adolescent brain. BAT was forced to withdraw its nicotine pouches in Russia, where products made by other brands have been blamed for a number of teenage hospitalizations and linked to one death. Unfortunately, that does not appear to have stopped BAT from seemingly setting its sights on younger generations in other markets.
One 18-year-old Swede who spoke to the Bureau said half the girls in his class were using Lyft, which they found much more appealing than snus, a similar product made with tobacco. “Lyft has got this super-cool, Södermalm-trendy, influencer-aura about it,” he said. “It’s become trendy to use Lyf”