An electronic cigarette is a battery-powered device that heats and vaporises a liquid containing nicotine to give the sensation of smoking a cigarette but without tobacco.

First patented in 1963, the basic design for today’s e-cigarettes was pioneered by Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, who began manufacturing and exporting his own version in 2003. Since then demand for e-cigarettes has grown exponentially and in 2014 global sales are expected to reach £4 billion.

There is currently no regulation of the manufacture, sale and promotion of e-cigarettes but their popularity is prompting regulators to take notice. Currently, they are marketed both as smoking cessation aids and as a glamorous new consumer product that circumvents smoking bans. British American Tobacco was the first of the large established tobacco firms to enter the UK e-cigarette market in 2013. An advertisement for Vype aired nearly 50 years after tobacco advertising was banned on British television.


Vype brand e-cigarettes are designed and manufactured by CN Creative, a division of British American Tobacco. Their design closely resembles a traditional cigarette, both in appearance and sensation, with a rubberised coating that attempts to recreate the feel of cigarette paper. The filter-like part of the cigarette is replaceable and contains the nicotine liquid; the white part contains the battery, recharged by screwing on to a USB attachment.