The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) has warned against the dangers of "glamourising" e-cigarettes through advertising.

Displaying e-cigarettes as a "sought-after" gimmick in adverts risked turning the products into an "attractive accessory", the RSPH announced on Wednesday (March 11) to coincide with national No Smoking Day.

Advertising campaigns, celebrity endorsements, the growing number of boutique shops selling e-cigarettes and the varied range of colours and flavours available were all contributing to a "smoking culture", the society said.

Displaying e-cigarettes as a "sought-after" gimmick in adverts risked turning the products into an "attractive accessory", said the RSPH	More on e-cigarettes Co-operative Pharmacy to sell e-cigarettes from April PDA calls for review of self-selection plans following e-cigarette furore Pharmacists defy RPS call to halt e-cigarette sales
	"We are concerned that a modern-day Marlboro Man situation may be born, where some suppliers use any possible means to make e-cigarettes attractive to users," said RSPH chief executive Shirley Cramer.

The RSPH was also concerned that young people would become "desensitised" to e-cigarettes and consequently cigarettes. E-cigarettes becoming commonplace could undo the hard work by public health groups to ban smoking indoors, it said.

The electronic version also contained nicotine, which was a harmful and addictive substance, it warned, adding that the absence of licensing requirements for the product meant there were still gaps in research needed to determine whether e-cigarettes were as effective as nicotine replacement therapy.

Last month, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) warned pharmacists against advertising and stocking e-cigarettes until they became licensed as medicines by the MHRA in 2016. At the time, the RPS director for Scotland Alex MacKinnon said TV and internet advertising for e-cigarettes was "out of control".

On Tuesday, the Co-operative Pharmacy confirmed to C+D that it would join the other two largest multiples in stocking e-cigarettes from April.