- In an interview with CBS, Juul CEO Kevin Burns warned against using his products and acknowledged that vaping has unknownhealth risks.
- Juul has walked a fine line between portraying its products as a trendy gadget and ahealthcare tool.
- After launching as a sleek Silicon Valley gadget withparties andfree giveaways, Juul rose to prominence as America’s most popular e-cigarette.
- Now, Juul is being forced to shift its marketing as the sleek devices face scrutiny over their role in sparking ateen vaping epidemic.
- Nicotine, Juul’s main ingredient, is a highly addictive drug.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
In an interview with CBS on Thursday, the CEO of the $38 billion e-cigarette company Juul warned against using his products.
Specifically, Juul CEO Kevin Burnssaid anyone who isn’t already using nicotine, the addictive drug in Juul, should not start.
“Don’t vape. Don’t use Juul,” Juul CEO Kevin Burnstold Tony Dokoupil in an interview that aired on “CBS This Morning.”
“Don’t start using nicotine if you don’t have a preexisting relationship with nicotine,” he said. “Don’t use the product.”
Burns’ remarks are the clearest sign yet of how Juul is being forced to shift its marketing as the sleek devices faceincreasing scrutiny over their role in sparking ateen vaping epidemic and potentially beingtied to seizures.
Products like Juul cannot be explicitly marketed as tools for quitting smoking, according to federal law. But that doesn’t mean companies who make them can’t suggestively advertise them as such.
And on Thursday, shortly after warning people not to Juul, CEO Burns said the company was helping American smokers quit.
Juul declined to comment for this story beyond Burns’ recent remarks. The company pointed to arecent opinion piece in which Burns says that the “1 billion adult smokers worldwide who should have the opportunity to switch to vapor products if they so desire.”
Juul is part-owned by tobacco giant Altria
A woman uses a Juul.AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer
Juul has walked a fine line between portraying its products as a trendy gadget and a healthcare tool.
The company launched its devices in 2015 with a series of promotional events that includedparties,free giveaways of its devices, and posters that featured young-looking models. At the time, the e-cigarettes were sold in flavors that included dessert with labels that included the word “cool.”
Juul has now risen to prominence as the most popular e-cigarette in America. It is also now partially owned byAltria, the tobacco giant behindMarlboro.
In recent months, Juul has been edginginto the healthcare space: first bypitching its e-cigarette as an anti-smoking tool to employers and insurers, then by outlining plans for amobile app geared at turning smokers into Juulers.
Read more:E-cig company Juul is diving further into health with an app geared toward turning smokers into Juulers
But while Juul aims to show customers that it can improve their health, regulators are increasingly pointing to the potential health risks of its products.
Two federal agenciesare now investigating whether Juul engaged in deceptive marketing. The FDA is also looking into reports of seizures linked with the Juul,Bloomberg reported. And US health agencies are investigating aspate of lung illnesses tied to vaping.
Read more:Here are all the health risks of vaping
Addictive gadget or anti-smoking tool?
Federal regulations prohibit companies like Juul from stating outright that their devices can help people quit smoking, in part because it’s still unclear whether or not they can.
Meanwhile, vapingappears to havehelped hook young people on nicotine. Experts have suggested that Juul has played an outsize role in this phenomenon. Teens who vape are also more likely to go on to smoke, according to twolarge studies.
“The dramatic spike of youth [vaping] — that was driven in part at the very least if not largely by Juul,” former FDA commissioner Scott Gottliebtold Vox.
Burns previouslyapologized to parents of kids addicted to Juul’s products.
In March, Juul put out a studysuggesting that some adult smokers may be using Juuls to wean themselves off regular cigarettes. The study, published four years after Juul’s products had been on the market, was paid for by Juul.
During Thursday’s interview, Burns, Juul’s CEO, said Juul was “absolutely contributing to the decline of the smoking rate.” Smoking rates in the US have beensteadily declining since the 1960s, reaching thelowest level ever recorded in 2017, according to the CDC.
Source: Read Full Article