To no one’s surprise, tobacco companies are exploiting metaverse loopholes to target youth with virtual smoking imagery and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) promotions, bypassing the world’s advertising bans, while regulators scramble to tackle the uncontrolled digital health crisis.
Dominantly seen in Instagram avatars lighting cigarettes, as well as Indonesian-branded NFT giveaways, companies like Djarum, are using immersive technology to normalize smoking for underage users through absence of metaverse advertising regulations.
Health experts are labeling these tactics as a Big Tobacco model, directly taken from their real-world playbook. The overly, non-regulated, tobacco ads could addict a new generation of youths, unless platforms in the virtual world adopt World Health Organization (WHO)-style ad bans and mandate age verification.
This growing concern highlighted the toxicity of unwatched technology and the urgent need for stronger tech-safe rules and global enforcement standards. As more young users enter online environments like the metaverse, industry standards like CARU’s ad guardrails and WHO’s online marketing prohibitions become more essential.
New Frontiers but Familiar Threats
Within virtual worlds where people converse as avatars, images of avatar smoking are increasingly shown.
One of the striking pictures on Instagram shows avatars smoking tobacco at a fictional bar, one of them grasping a burning cigarette while the others congregate at a table. This can seem harmless, but such an image assists in the normalization of virtual smoking.
Global public health organization Vital Strategies’ Canary Project tracks these trends, monitoring social media and gaming websites – though not the metaverse directly.
In Indonesian, it found a post tied tobacco giant, Djarum – one of the country’s biggest cigarette makers – showing avatars mocking each other for lacking lighters. One of many unregulated tobacco advertising targeting youth in the metaverse.
“They’re using NFTs [non-fungible tokens]. They’re using immersive events to get our kids to come and see what they’re offering,” Vital Strategies India’s Dr. Melina Magsumbol said.
One such experience was a cigarettes NFT released by an Indian cigarette company to mark its 93rd anniversary.
A Digital Gap in Regulation
Because current legislation is not effective for interactive environments, entrepreneurs are exploiting weak virtual tobacco advertising regulations in order to reach new markets. With vague policies in virtual environments, children are increasingly exposed to harmful advertisements.
“When you combine that with the experience and the knowledge of the tobacco industry on how to hook and keep people hooked … those two things together in a space that is unknown and opaque – that scares me,” Dr. Mary-Ann Etiebet, the CEO of Vital Strategies warned.
These efforts are part of a larger strategy to popularize virtual smoking among preteens and teenagers, in particular. Agamroop Kaur, a youth activist in India, regularly teaches school kids about the stealthy marketing that goes into social media photos. She emphasizes how important it is for children to understand how to spot advertising disguised as fun.
With more than half of users aged 13 and younger, youth and smoking in the metaverse are rapidly rising public health risk. What seems like a game or online activity might be influencing behavior. As these social media promotions spread, it is agreed that it’s time to take virtual cigarette smoking as seriously as traditional advertising and act before it becomes ever harder to control.
Final Thoughts
The international study by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore is an important contribution to this tobacco and advertising matter. It suggests that high levels of social media use undermine attention, amplify emotional weariness, and trigger addiction-like behaviors, especially for young users.
As platforms permit e-smoking and tobacco and e-cig ads in immersive environments, they are capitalizing on exactly these vulnerabilities.
Safety requires enforceable policies – not just voluntary codes – informed by WHO standards, CARU guardrails, and psychological insights. Pairing strong regulations with smart user experience (UX), like constant transparency, can proactively protect youth and prevent threats.
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