Comment | Gini-Bottas hatched into a nicotine bag-Valtteri – who should be disliked more?

Last week there was an uproar about nicotine pouches because the F1 driver Valtteri Bottas the product in question is sold with initials and race number.

The sale of nicotine pouches is legal in Finland, as long as the strength is less than 20 milligrams – foreign online stores sell nicotine bombs with a strength of just 20 milligrams.

The product is stupid in every way and seriously addictive. For example, the CEO of THL Mika Salminen would like to ban nicotine pouches, which especially young people are interested in.

“Nicotine is like heroin in creating addiction. Most people don't know that,” Salminen growled On Ylen's podcast.

The Bottas product has entered the market quietly. There hasn't been a marketing campaign or a Bottas greeting where he tucks a bag under his lip.

It feels a bit like it's an experiment in how to approach this. I guess Bottas will get a nice compensation anyway.

But: why exactly did the displeasure start with this product?

Bottas is also an advertising face for a wine brand and gin.

The latter, the development of which the gin fan Bottas has been involved in, has been the subject of magazine stories, which have been decorated with Instagram embeds in which a smiling Bottas pours liquor from a beautiful bottle. Yes, gin is liquor, no matter how nice the bottle. Hard liquor, like Kari Hotakainen calls for clear liquor in his books.

For some reason, booze is somehow ok, but nicotine pouches get an immediate verdict.

There is no wonder in itself. Alcoholic citizens loitering on the corners of shopping centers and in parks has always been tolerated in Finland. They belong to the street scene.

In that continuum, alcohol advertising for formula drivers is light stuff – as long as you don't put too much booze in the drink bottle at the races.

But which is worse? Sophisticated booze or shabby nicotine pouches?

Either way, especially healthy products are not marketed under the name of an F1 driver. And then there would be an energy drink…