I was wondering what took so long. I vaguely remember seeing the very first juul ad and I was under the impression that they might have been affiliated with snapchat (Same vibrant color scheme etc). After finding out that they were nicotine vapes, I was truly shocked that it was so blatantly targeted towards teenagers.
Wait, as someone overseas who hasn’t seen any of the Juul advertising what are some of the examples of them “blatantly advertising to children”? Is it just the fact that they are making flavoured nicotine products or has it been more nefarious than that. As an adult I kind of like some of the flavoured tobacco products from smoking shisha (argile, hookah etc) and they have had flavours forever and not been in the spotlight to marketing to children?
I'm not denying that adult smokers can enjoy fruit flavors, but at this point not even Juul is trying to deny their early marketing was targeted to youths.
What blatant advertising to kids, tho? The only time I ever see vape ads, it's in store promos for Juul and the only copy is along the lines of "Satisfying alternative for adult smokers"
But then why would they intentionally target a group who has little to no money and can’t legally buy their product? And somewhere juuls advertising style got twisted and any ad not showing an adult (read over 30) is targeting youths?
How do they target kids any more than bubblegum vodka in the gas station? I never understood these arguments, implying these flavors are for kids. I've never even seen a juul advertisement to begin with.
I love flavored juul and I'm an adult, the tobacco and menthol flavors are ass and I know a few people that have fallen back to smoking or chewing tobacco when they could no longer get their mango juul pods.
The question at hand is whether Juul intentionally marketed nicotine to people below 18.
There's pretty strong circumstantial evidence that they did. Building relationships w teenage social media influencers is part of that.
The unfortunate fact is that Juul achieved explosive popularity among high schoolers. It spearheaded a U turn in youth nicotine use rates, which had been declining for a long time and are now way up.
The investigation is here to determine to what extent this was the result of a deliberate strategy.
It blows my mind that they shot themselves in the foot by marketing to kids.
They never needed to do that. Kids would've gotten their hands on them just the same.
Kids have been smoking cigarettes in school bathrooms since the beginning of time. JUUL was just incredibly incompetent in contrast with the high quality of their product.
I have never understood the attraction to juul's but the majority of individuals who I know who use them are all young adults and it is alarming that it is so simple for them to have access to this product.
I got hooked on cigarettes in the summer after 6th grade, many moons ago when I learned how to inhale. I tried vaping, chewing, and nicorette but it didn't quite cut it. I tried Juul a week or so ago and have only smoked a few cigarettes since and haven't for a few days. It's a godsend.
Getting hooked on nicotine isn't a very good idea, but if you are going to do it, Juul or vapes is a relatively healthy way to do it, simply because it won't kill you like cigarettes might.
I think all the hysteria from these people in the article is because these people can't disassociate vapes with cigarettes, particularly after the 2 decade long marketing campaign against cigarettes (with quite a bit of hyperbole as evidenced in the article).
Long story longer, Juul might finally get me to quit (fingers crossed). Kids are doing it which is dumb, but that's what kids do. Kids my age did the same with cigarettes during my time, so it's going to happen. Thank goodness that today having a nicotine addiction isn't as unhealthy as it was 20+ years ago.
One final thought; the only complaint I have with Juul is the disposable pods. They should have some sort of recycling program or something. I can go through a pod a day / day and a half.
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