A friend was using a vape pen, and the wind blew the "smoke" into my face. I was shocked by how pleasant the "smoke" was. This in turn led to a discussion about how there are only five "ingredients" in vape juice -- water, vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, flavoring (which can be many things), and nicotine. Cigarette smoke however has 4,000 - 7,000 compounds (see link 1, link 2).
While there are fewer ingredients, that does not make vape juice safe. As George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". It appears the vape juice industry did remember the issue with Joe Camel. The FDA started targeting the vape juice industry for packaging which resembles kid friendly food products such as juice boxes, candies, and cookies (see FDA webpage 1, webpage 2).
Photo from FDA website - https://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/NewsEvents/ucm605729.htm