YOUTH NOW
How Juul Exploited Teens’ Brains to Hook Them on Nicotine
After years of public health wins, there’s a new generation of nicotine users
In 2016, it looked like public health officials had dodged a bullet. Teen use of tobacco products, which had been rising for two straight years following the introduction of e-cigarettes, was on the decline. That relief has been short-lived. Teen e-cigarette use is up 75 percent this year, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), recently declared youth e-cigarette use an “epidemic.”
What changed? One word: Juul. The discrete pod-style vape pen took off in 2017 with a polished design and a prolific social media marketing strategy. Like Google, the brand name has become a verb, with “juuling” now synonymous with vaping. As of August, Juul had gobbled up 72 percent of the e-cigarette market, and the company’s sales are up more than 800 percent from the previous year.
“You couldn’t design a combination of a campaign and a product more perfect to undo all the good that has been done over the last 30 years.”
“Juul is the perfect product for kids because it’s all electronic and modern,” says Stanton Glantz, a…
