They're disease-riddled, snaggle-toothed pariahs. Some have lost limbs, some have lost lungs, and some of them poison babies. Smokers, as portrayed in today's ad breaks, tend to cut a pretty disgusting figure, cautionary tales rather than aspirational role-models. But, following a notable return to TV advertising by Big Tobacco, the modern day Marlboro man appears to be getting a makeover. For the first time in more than 20 years, cigarette ads are back on British TV screens, and several decades of anti-smoking campaigning could be undermined.

On Monday night, British American Tobacco launched the first-ever TV commercials for its Vype brand of e-cigarettes. If you missed the spots, you might be wondering how you go about advertising a vaporising device designed to deliver a potent parasympathomimetic alkaloid into a person's lungs. The answer, apparently, is "attractive people jumping". The Vype ad features two urbanites sprinting through city streets before being propelled into the air through large clouds of vapour. From their looks of elation, one can only surmise that vaping Vype is borderline orgasmic. Goodbye Sickly Smoker; hello Vigorous Vaper; watch out Everyone Else.

Britain banned television ads promoting cigarettes in the 1960s, and ads for other tobacco products, including cigars, have been prohibited since the early 1990s. However, current advertising codes weren't designed with e-cigarettes in mind and the rules around what is now a $3bn (£1.8bn) industry worldwide are still somewhat hazy. This regulatory gap has not gone unnoticed by Big Tobacco, which is capitalising on the present state of flux with what is arguably the sector's most prolific spate of marketing activity since the 1980s.

The advent of e-cigarette ads is harmful for a number of reasons. To begin with, it risks renormalising smoking; negating the millions of pounds of taxpayer money that have gone into health campaigns designed to make puffing on a cigarette seem more gormless than glamorous.

"Experience the breakthrough," breathes a throaty voice at the end of the Vype ad. It's not quite clear what this breakthrough is, but you're evidently meant to want a bit of whatever's sweeping the good-looking pair in the advert off their feet.

Then there's the health implications of e-cigarettes which are still ambiguous. Proponents argue that they are effective stop-smoking tools that can save thousands of lives and, thus, should be actively advertised. However, nobody really knows what long-term risks e-cigarettes pose. And it's worth bearing in mind the degree to which arguments about the health benefits of e-cigarettes echo the claims with which regular cigarettes were first promoted. Viceroys were "dentist-recommended", hospital patients puffed on Chesterfields, and "more doctors smoke[d] Camels than any other cigarette".

While Vype may not be making any explicit claims to be GP-approved, everything about its marketing, from the lithe protagonists of the ad, to the vamped-up yet vapid vocabulary, is designed to make it seem like part of a healthy, aspirational lifestyle. "Our secret is ECOpure, a premium quality e-liquid that contains pharmaceutical-grade nicotine," reads the web copy: it is jargon formulated to present the image of all-natural ingredients sanctioned by science. The numerous e- prefixes further obfuscate the potential health risks, making them appear less physical, more digital. However there is nothing electronic about the effects of nicotine and no such thing as e-cancer, e-addiction or e-death.

"Our desire to redefine smoking satisfaction knows no limits," proclaims Vype's corporate website. But it should. The regulation of cigarette advertising, coupled with policy changes and price hikes over the years has led to a significant reduction in the rate of smoking.

Fewer than one in five adults in England are smokers, the lowest figure in around 80 years. If regulations aren't brought into curb e-cigarette advertising, we could see decades of progress go up in smoke. Or, perhaps, vapour.