[NEWS] Using the same tactics as ‘Big Tobacco’, Juul may have intentionally targeted teens – Loganspace

After a hearing this week, contributors of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reformacknowledged that Juul, the extremely-neatly-liked e-cigarette ticket, can possess intentionally focused kids in colleges and online.

In response to 55,000 private paperwork out of Juul Labs, the subcommittee acknowledged that Juul’s Childhood Prevention Concept recruited colleges into a program that place Juul representatives and students within the same room. Colleges got fee for taking part on this technique.

Primarily based totally on the inaugurate, one testimony place ahead of the Subcommittee on Economic and User Protection described a Juul advisor telling students that vaping modified into “fully safe,” and suggested that one already nicotine-addicted student use Juul.

The subcommittee moreover reported that Juul spent $134,000 to living up a 5-week summer camp for 80 kids through a charter college, basically based totally on paperwork got for the hearing. The camp modified into intended to be a “holistic neatly being education program.”

Dr. Robert Jackler, Stanford University College of Drugs, testified about his conversations withJUULco-founder James Monsees, who acknowledged the use of Stanford’s tobacco marketing database modified into “very priceless as they designed JUUL’s marketing,” basically based totally on knowledge provided by the subcommittee.

“The Subcommittee chanced on that: JUUL deployed a fancy program to enter colleges and produce its messaging straight to teenage kids; JUUL moreover focused kids and younger americans, as younger as eight years frail, in summer camps and public out-of-college programs; and JUUL recruited thousands of online “influencers” to market to kids,” the memo states.

The corporate moreover grew to modified into to more neatly-liked programs. The utilization of an influencer marketing program to “curate and title 280 influencers in LA/NY to seed JUUL product” and rep social media “buzzmakers” with “no now not up to 30,000 followers” to abet inaugurate events for the corporate’s merchandise.

JUULshut down its social media marketing program in November of final One year. Whereas it closed its Facebook and Instagram accounts, the corporate’s merchandise serene circulate on social mediathrough hashtags from users themselves.

Paperwork dropped at the Subcommittee present that JUUL modified into aware that its prevention programs were “eerily the same” to these worn by the wide tobacco firms (which werewithin the raze forced to pay states and the U.S. authorities  $27.5 billion in a master settlement settlementover their marketing and gross sales practices).

JUUL moreover took steps to cease promoting flavored merchandise basically based totally on FDA criticism.

Aswe reported:

Juul currently sells eight varied flavors of pods. Pods that don’t procedure in present tobacco flavors — Virginia Tobacco, Classic Tobacco, Mint and Menthol — will simplest be available online effective straight. In other phrases, the supreme living to have interaction Creme, Fruit, Cucumber and Mango (Juul’s most neatly-liked flavor) is on the Juul web role.

There, the corporate verifies that potentialities are 21 by both shocking-referencing knowledge, comparable to DOB and the final four digits of a Social Security number, with publicly available records, or asking users to upload a scan of their driver’s license.

Responding to power from the Food and Drug Administration, JUUL has taken other steps to limit get entry to and curb underage use of its merchandise.

JUUL moreover focused Native American populations,the place smoking rates are higher than the overall inhabitants. Rae O’Leary, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, testified that JUUL focused Native American tribes to use as “guinea pigs.” Primarily based totally on O’Leary’s testimony, in replace for a $600,000 investment, JUUL solicited tribal scientific mavens to produce their devices to tribal contributors for free and get knowledge on the tribal contributors.

JUUL declined to comment at the time of e-newsletter.