The State of California has filed a lawsuit against JUUL Labs, Inc., claiming its e-cigarette advertising targeted underage users. The lawsuit also names Pax Labs Inc. and 100 “John and Jane Does” as co-defendants.

JUUL, which has long denied it ever intended its products to be used by non-tobacco users or teenagers, has been under fire for allegedly directing its marketing to underage youth. Critics of the company claim the company has been taking a page from Big Tobacco’s old playbook in attempting to create lifelong customers by “hooking” them at an early age.

Basis of the Complaint

In June 2014, when e-cigarette advertising and the industry was only a few years old, a study appearing in the journal Pediatrics concluded that “E-cigarette companies currently advertise their products to a broad audience that includes 24 million youth.” Researchers further found that “young adult television exposure” expanded rapidly over the two-year period between 2011 and 2013.

In January of 2019, researchers at Stanford University published their own findings. They conducted an extensive analysis of JUUL Lab’s marketing and promotions between 2015, when the company launched its product line, and the fall of 2018, examining thousands of social media posts, email marketing messages, and e-cigarette advertising, both in print and online.

Many of these ads featured images of attractive, fun-loving, trendy and even rebellious-looking young people – and were remarkably similar to those used by tobacco companies before the federal government prohibited all forms of tobacco advertising.

JUUL Labs also used clever slogans, social media “influencers,” and employed the services of attractive young women who were hired to pass out free samples at trade shows and exhibitions. The company also sponsored entertainment events to promote its e-cigarettes. The conclusion: “JUUL’s advertising imagery in its first 6 months on the market was patently youth oriented.”

JUUL Representatives Spoke to School Children

Allegedly, JUUL didn’t stop at e-cigarette advertising and marketing. In 2018, JUUL Labs paid $134,000 to a charter school organization in order to set up a five-week summer program for teaching children about “healthy lifestyles” – using the company’s own curriculum.

The previous year, JUUL reportedly offered public schools $10,000 for the right to speak with students after school. At New York City’s Dwight School, a JUUL company representative met with students alone – with no faculty present – and informed them that their product was “totally safe.”

On the other side of the country, JUUL reportedly paid $90,000 to the Richmond, Calif. Police Activities League to present its own “vaping education” program (titled “Moving Beyond”) to school children who had been suspended for tobacco use. According to a memo prepared by a House subcommittee, “[JUUL] deployed a sophisticated program to enter schools and convey its messaging directly to teenage children” – in some cases, targeting children 8 years of age.

What their messaging needed to discuss was that the health risks of vaping includes interfering with youth brain development.

Was it E-cigarette Advertising – Or Prevention?

JUUL Labs has long claimed that its products were intended only for adult tobacco users attempting to quit. One executive told Congress that their “education efforts” were intended to discourage children from using their products.

Nonetheless, research findings and fruit and candy-flavored vape products (which JUUL has discontinued), may constitute powerful evidence against the defendant.

The E-Cigarette Advertising Lawsuit is The People of the State of California v. Juul Labs Inc., filed in the Alameda County Superior Court.

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