The Pod-Based Device Crash Course
A Quick Guide
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Changing Social Norms
Social media has become an integral part of young people’s social experiences, with a majority of young people interacting with social media on a daily basis.
There has been increasing concerns around how young people have been targeted on social media.
Social media accounts post videos of young people using these products, while giving "shout-outs" to pod-based brands.
Social media allows for the industry to have widespread advertising at almost no cost. By sharing cartoons and memes, young people have essentially done the advertising for them.
Quick Links
- "Ads for E-cigarettes Today Hearken Back to the Banned Tricks of Big Tobacco" Smithsonian Magazine
- "The Juul in the crown - how social media provided the polish" ECigIntelligence
- "Silicon Valley e-cig startup Juul 'threw a really great party' to launch its devices, which experts say deliberately targeted youth" Business Insider
In-Depth Resources
Flavors
Young people report flavors being one of the main reasons why they try using JUULs or other pod-based systems.
Research has shown that young people are disproportionately attracted to sweet and fruity flavors compared to adults.
Most flavored cigarettes have been banned since 2009, since extensive research shows that they are more appealing to young people. The e-cig industry has yet to be regulated in this way.
Why else would there be 15,500 e-juice flavor options such as Banana Butt and Honey Doo Doo?
Perceived Reduced Risk
Young people have an overwhelming misperception that pod-based systems like JUUL are less harmful than cigarettes, with 63% of youth JUUL users claiming that they do not even contain nicotine!
A lot of this may be due to the confusing packaging. The "5% strength" on e-juice packaging may be confusing.
A higher value means there is more nicotine, but 5% on these boxes is misleading. 5% is a small number and it just says “5% strength.” 5% strength of what? Exactly how much is 5%?
This marketing strategy of using “5% strength” on the packaging can manipulate and mislead young people.
Life Stressors
Many young people report stress being a huge part of their life from academic to home environments.
Unfortunately, with many myths spread around correlating vaping with decreased stress, young people may turn to substances such as pod-based systems (like JUULs) as a method to cope with other stress happening in their life.
This is very similar to the tactics of the previous generations of the tobacco industry: marketing cigarettes as products to help with mental illness and stress.
Lack of Addiction Education
Since JUULs and other pod-based systems are a fairly new electronic vaping device, there have yet to be comprehensive curricula developed to address these new devices (except this one!)
This is concerning because the high amount of nicotine in JUULs and other pod-based systems can be dangerous to the developing teen brain, which is very sensitive to nicotine and prone to addiction.
We are nowhere close to understanding what is in the JUULpod and how it affects the body. Yet we still need to teach young people how to make healthy decisions about these new pod-based systems.
Quick Links
“Addiction and Brain Circuits” Brainfacts.org
"Did JUUL Lure Teenagers and Get 'Customers for Life'" The New York Times
In-Depth Resources
Targeted Marketing
The industry uses advertisements of pod-based systems including colorful images, youthful models, and social justice themes to target young people.
In addition, social media does the advertising for the industry at almost no cost.