
'Don't vape. Don't use Juul': Juul CEO issues stark warning to non-smokers - onetimemanytime
https://www.businessinsider.com/juul-ceo-dont-vape-long-term-effects-unknown-2019-8
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wyldfire
They went to schools to tell kids "You should not use our product, our product
is for adults. OBTW our product is very safe!" Even teenagers saw through the
smokescreen: this wasn't an anti-vaping message, this was a sales pitch.

Also, they design their products to be usable while hidden within your palm.
Some adults might like this but this is clearly intended for teenagers to be
able to get access to nicotine discreetly while still in school.

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c9c9c9c9
I think it's a stretch to say that just because the item fits easily within
your palm it's, "clearly intended for teenagers to be able to get access to
nicotine discreetly while still in school."

~~~
happytoexplain
I don't think so at all. If I put myself in the shoes of marketing or R&D,
it's totally obvious that "easily hidden in the palm" would have _probably_
come from a brainstorming session where one of the items was was some version
of "teens want to avoid getting caught". It's not necessarily what happened,
but it's miles from unrealistically cynical.

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dr_dshiv
Why would they want to sell to teens? Like, the market is huge enough to sell
to over 18, selling to 12-17 year olds is only going to get you in trouble.

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scapegoat444
They're not directly selling to teens, but they are indirectly selling them...
and the entire big tobacco industry has been doing so for decades. You get
them hooked early in life so you have a lifetime customer... that's been their
tactic

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bb88
Reminds me a bit of a certain futurama episode where Bender tried to warn
people away from eating Popplers.

[https://theinfosphere.org/Transcript:The_Problem_with_Popple...](https://theinfosphere.org/Transcript:The_Problem_with_Popplers)

Bender: Hear me, hear me! Stop eating Popplers! Stop eating them with honey
mustard sauce. Stop eating them with tangy sweet-and-sour sauce. Stop eating
the new fiesta Poppler salad. Stop taking advantage of the money-saving
12-pack.

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gist
Remember that in certain age groups they actually want to do something they
shouldn't be doing.

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superjan
I’m not so familiar with this company, so I searched for “juul ad” images. The
people in the ads look awfully young. Twentysomethings.

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sdinsn
What's your point? Plenty of twentysomethings smoke

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beatgammit
And they're way less uncool than 40+ people from a teenager's perspective.

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posterboy
bad publicity is still publicity. This is a non-story. Kindly go bust please

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jimbob45
Would you prefer a Chinese corporation corner the market instead?

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posterboy
No, I wouldn't.

A chinese company cannot do business _in_ the USA, they need to register
locally at which point they become an American company, technically, to be
held accountable under US law.

The concern of nationhood or nationality might be a matter of degree, as well
as the details and beaurocratic workarounds, however of fleeting interest
because a potentially worse morallity of the Chinese is not indicated. If you
note that leaving profits up for grabs to a competing economy, whether the
profit was ethicallly dignified or not ... then the moral of the story still
sucks?

If you hold equivalently that making profit and not smoking were imperative,
then we could have an argument that applies to competition in general. The
argument is interesting, if it implies, that non-smoking were a profit, and
that profiting from idiots were imperative. Then we could have an argument
about obsession and compulsion, that is, addiction and dependence.

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linsomniac
Is this what it looks like when a corporation has a morality, rather than just
maximizing shareholder value?

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nemothekid
The company's "mission" has always been that of "we provide a healthy
alternative to smoking cigarettes". I remember reading that was the internal
koolaid that got people to work there - they weren't creating new smokers,
they were converting cigarette smokers to a healthy vaping option.

Whether that is true in reality is dubious, but I'm not surprised their CEO
would come out publicly and say something like that.

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jakelazaroff
It's false, at least insofar as teen smoking goes. E-cigarettes have more or
less completely erased any gains in getting teens to stop smoking over the
past couple decades.
[https://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2019/jun/12/t...](https://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2019/jun/12/tim-
kaine/has-vaping-wiped-out-progress-reducing-youth-smoki/)

~~~
dr_dshiv
No! Read the article. Teens are vaping more but smoking less. The article is
equivocal about the health effects of vaping and smoking but that is
ridiculous. Smoking is a known cause of early death. Suggesting that "we don't
know" about vaping is just silly. Replacing a known killer with something that
probably doesn't kill is good.

