the wild west
タバコ業界も逆風に立ち向かっています。しかしながら活路を求めた電子タバコの宣伝では新機軸が打ち出せず、まずはかつての手法を踏襲しているようです。
Old tobacco ad playbook gets new use by e-cigarettes
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – Companies vying for a stake in the fast-growing electronic cigarette business are reviving the decades-old marketing tactics that the tobacco industry formerly used to hook generations of Americans on regular smokes.
They’re using cab-top and bus stop displays, sponsoring race cars and events, and encouraging smokers to “rise from the ashes” and take back their freedom in slick TV commercials featuring celebrities such as TV personality Jenny McCarthy.
Tobacco marketing has been increasingly restricted in the United States, with TV commercials for traditional cigarettes banned since 1970. The Food and Drug Administration plans to set marketing and product regulations for electronic cigarettes in the near future.
But for now, almost anything goes.
“Right now it’s the wild, wild west,” Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a recent interview.
the Wild West (wild west）は「（開拓時代の）米国西部の辺境地帯」のこと、つまりカウボーイ時代のことですが、ここはその比喩的な用法で、「未知の分野、未開拓の領域」という意味で用いられています。（Hatahata）
