Giving tobacco or vapes to young people?
You’re helping them into addiction, ill health and money worries.
Think you’re doing them a favour?


Support Scotland’s campaign to stop young people being given tobacco or vapes.
Most young people who smoke or vape get their cigarettes and vapes from friends, family and other people they know. Often this is thought of as “doing them a favour.”
The #notafavour campaign sets out to challenge the attitudes and assumptions that lie behind giving harmful products to children. We are doing this because:
- we want to protect children and young people from harmful products
- to reduce purchases of tobacco and vapes for under 18s
Under the #notafavour banner, this campaign clearly sets out that buying tobacco or vapes for young people is helping them into addiction, ill health and money worries.
We have created a set of materials promoting the #notafavour message. Can you help us to get these materials and messages out to those members of the public who need to see them?
Every cigarette smoked results in 11 minutes of life lost.
Why buying tobacco or vapes for kids isn’t doing them a favour
It’s illegal:
- To sell tobacco or vapes to under 18s
- To buy tobacco or vapes on behalf of under 18s (this is called proxy purchase)
- For under 18s to try to buy tobacco products themselves
There are good reasons for this.
%
70% of smokers say they want to quit.
Tobacco
Addiction
Teenagers get addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes much faster than adults do.
They find nicotine more rewarding, underestimate the risks of smoking, and are more influenced by smoking behaviour around them.
Money worries
In Scotland people who smoke use an average of 12 cigarettes a day. At £10 for a pack of 20 this would quickly add up to £187.50 a month, or £2190 a year.
Ill health
The earlier a smoker starts the more health damage it causes and the harder it is to quit
Smoking early in life has substantial short and long term health risks including cardiovascular damage, reduced lung function, impaired lung growth and asthma.
Smoking is by far the biggest preventable cause of ill health and death in Scotland.
Vapes
Although vaping is less harmful than smoking tobacco, these are not products for under 18s…
Addiction
Most vapes contain nicotine, which is addictive. We don’t want to recruit young people into nicotine addiction.
Money worries
The cost of vaping can quickly add up. For young people on limited budget this could be taking money away from other things.
Ill health
Vaping is not risk free and we don’t know much about the long-term health effects of vaping.
There are also concerns that vaping may attract non-smokers, creating a new route of into smoking for young people. We want to discourage experimentation with vaping devices, particularly amongst non-smokers.
Most people would not give these products to children, not because of the threat of a fine but because they know it’s just wrong. Yet surveys of young people show that this is the most common way that they get hold of cigarettes and vapes.
We need to reach that minority of people who do pass on cigarettes and vapes onto those who are too young to buy for themselves.
With the source usually being people they know, we have the chance to highlight how giving tobacco and vapes to young people is not doing them a favour – it is doing serious harm to friends, family and people you know and care about.
This campaign is part of a wider effort for Scotland to become “tobacco-free” by 2034 – meaning a situation where the only people who smoke are the small number of informed adults who actively choose to do so.
Think you’re doing them a favour?

What you can do.
Think about opportunities you have to get the #notafavour message out to the public, particularly any groups you think might be involved in giving tobacco or vapes to kids.
What channels are available to you – schools and colleges, youth groups, shops, GP surgeries, community noticeboards, websites or social media, local newspapers, stencils at busy junctions or bus stops – whatever chances you have in your community.
Access free resources, from posters and postcards to email footers and web buttons, to download
Tweet with hashtag #notafavour and get our campaign Twibbon to help spread the word.
Contact us to tell us you want to support the campaign, to order printed posters to put in your workplace, etc, and postcards to have available to give out.
Find out more about Scotland’s Charter for a Tobacco-free Generation, and have your organisation join those having signed it.
Free resources
Download our free resources. If emailing us to request printed copies then please quote the code given for each product.
A3 Campaign Poster Portrait (Male) – code A3PM
A4 Campaign Poster Portrait (Male) – code A4PM
A3 Campaign Poster Portrait (Female) – code A3PF
A4 Campaign Poster Portrait (Female) – code A4PF
A3 Campaign Poster Landscape (Male) – code A3LM
A4 Campaign Poster Landscape (Male) – code A4LM
A3 Campaign Poster Landscape (Female) – code A3LF
A4 Campaign Poster Landscape (Female) – code A4LF
A6 Postcard Landscape (Male) – code A6LM
A6 Campaign Postcard Portrait (Male) – code A6PM
A6 Postcard Landscape (Female) – code A6LF
A6 Campaign Postcard Portrait (Female) – code A6PF
Campaign Web Buttons
Campaign Twibbon
Support this campaign by adding a Twibbon to your profile picture:
- Visit our Twibbon page to show your support on social media
Retail Floor Graphic
Social Media assets
Download our assets and graphics for use on social media.
Buying tobacco for young people?

Contact us.
If you have any questions on the campaign, or would like to request some of our stock of printed materials, please contact ASH Scotland.
Send us a message
Say hello
ASH Scotland
8 Frederick Street
Edinburgh EH2 2HB
Tel: 0131 225 4725
Web: ashscotland.org.uk
For media information please contact 0131 225 4725 or the out-of-hours number on 07776 142 299
Action on Smoking & Health (Scotland) (ASH Scotland) is a registered Scottish charity (SC 010412) and a company limited by guarantee (Scottish company no 141711). The registered office is 8 Frederick Street, Edinburgh EH2 2HB.