Nearly 40 state attorneys general have launched an investigation into JUUL e-cigarette advertisements and the product’s effect on teenage consumers.

Last month, 39 state attorneys general joined together to launch a comprehensive investigation into JUUL’s marketing practices, specifically whether or not the popular e-cigarette company targets teens in its advertisements.

According to a recent Associated Press story, this type of investigation is exactly what JUUL had been trying to avoid.

Ten months before the investigation began, JUUL representatives reportedly met with Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to discuss, among other things, the company’s “commitment” to end youth vaping. Georgia’s Carr is among the attorneys general involved in the current investigation. At its meeting with Carr, JUUL representatives reportedly aimed to sway Carr and his staff from pursuing legal action against the e-cigarette manufacturer. These presentations were allegedly repeated with several other state attorneys general to no avail.

Despite these presentations, and thousands of dollars allegedly funneled by JUUL Labs into political organizations, the company remains the subject of widespread scrutiny and a multi-state investigation.

Concerns over JUUL targeting teens in its advertisements are not new. In January 2019, Vox released the results of a Stanford research paper that reviewed the company’s marketing between 2015 and 2018. According to the researchers from Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising, JUUL e-cigarette marketing “was patently youth-oriented” and heavily mirrored the strategies used by tobacco companies.

The researchers pointed to 2015 social media ads that used influencer marketing, images of young people, and tricks or jokes centered around JUUL devices. These posts reportedly spawned popular hashtags such as #juul, #juulvapor, #switchtojuul, and #vaporized.

“What Juul did that’s different is it exploited social media, where American middle and high school kids live,” Robert Jackler, a Stanford professor and lead researcher on the study, told Vox. “That was their innovation.”

Experts have agreed with these conclusions, readily pointing the finger at JUUL for encouraging widespread e-cigarette usage amongst teenagers.

“Juul really created this crisis,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, in a statement to the AP. “Juul created the pool of nicotine-addicted teens and I think they popularized the idea of vaping among kids.”

With mounting concern about teenage JUUL use, the company has reportedly changed its marketing strategies to focus on adults and smoking cessation. These “make the switch” advertisements include testimonials from adult consumers and encourage viewers to use JUUL products instead of traditional cigarettes.

The company has also denied targeting teenagers with its advertisements, noting that its social media marketing only occurred for a short period of time.

“This advertising in 2015 was short-lived, intended for adults, and took place well before JUUL gained any meaningful market share,” a JUUL spokesperson told Vox in a statement.

“Our current advertising features testimonials from former adult smokers who made the switch off combustible tobacco with the JUUL device, and we are ensuring that this campaign is targeted at adult smokers age 35 and up.”

Despite these assurances, some anti-vaping advocates and parents argue that JUUL’s early marketing practices — even if they’ve since done away with them — helped spawn the teen vaping epidemic.

JUUL E-Cigarette Health Concerns

Marketing e-cigarette products to teenagers is not only morally concerning, but it may also expose these young consumers to health risks.

The most prominent health concerns of JUUL and all e-cigarette products is the risk of nicotine addiction. Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical that has been compared to highly addictive drugs such as heroin.

If consumers, including teenagers, are unaware of the nicotine content found in their e-cigarette products, they become unknowingly addicted to the substance and stuck with a long term reliance on e-cigarette or tobacco products. The risk of potential nicotine addiction may be particularly noteworthy for teenagers whose brains are still developing.

JUUL has specifically been called out as a potential source of nicotine addiction in consumers. According to Healthline, some JUUL pods contain 5 percent nicotine by weight – up to twice as much as other e-cigarette brands. The higher the nicotine in a product, the harder it may be for someone to quit using.

Other health concerns of JUUL e-cigarette products are debated.

In 2019, the media was inundated with reports of a mysterious lung illness that was eventually linked to e-cigarette products. Although the illness, later dubbed e-cigarette or vaping product use associated lung injury (EVALI) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is clearly linked to vaping, the problem has not been linked to only one brand such as JUUL.

Last year also saw reports of seizures related to vape usage, although these reports were also related to a variety of brands. The FDA released the news of a potential connection in April, promising further investigation into the issue.

Join a Free JUUL E-Cigarette Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you or your child suffered seizures after vaping with a JUUL e-cigarette, you may benefit from participating in a free JUUL class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented 
for informational purposes only.