How Juul Got Vaporized: Inside the Rise and Fall of the Vaping Company (Time magazine, May 17, 2021) addresses corporate responsibility in terms of marketing.
Marketing identifies audiences and connects products with those potential consumers. Marketing facilitates sales. Copywriting and content development are part of the marketing process and therefore part of the overall sales process. They are also a type of storytelling.
Juul’s 2015 marketing campaign told the story of glamor, chic, and a charmed lifestyle that included parties full of stylish and carefree twentysomethings.
As I contemplate focusing more on freelance copywriting, I am becoming hyper aware of which products and services I would feel comfortable creating copy for.
On June 7, North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein enters court with his state’s lawsuit against Juul, which alleges e-cigarette company Juul Labs intentionally targeted teenagers with its products and contributed to #youthsmoking. Many others are primed to sue as well.
Social media factor
Marketing in the age of omnipresent social media presents new challenges. Ads can become viral overnight and be shared with any and every audience. Juul’s ads and images of teens using Juul e-cigarettes flooded the Internet.
Juul claims that they didn’t design their ad campaigns to appeal to a teen or young adult audience, and, therefore, the lawsuits against them are without merit.
Could Juul’s marketing team have been that clueless?
It is possible to live in a bubble and ignore everyone and everything outside that bubble. However, when the product you sell contains nicotine, a highly addictive substance, and the long-term use of nicotine has been linked to addiction and long-term health consequences, it’s time to venture outside your cozy bubble.
How Juul Got Vaporized quotes an Ad Age article in which a spokesperson from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said, “We are concerned any time a new product or new advertising campaign goes public regarding cigarettes and tobacco and their addictive nicotine.”
Nicotine is addictive because it activates receptors, structures, in your brain, which release dopamine. Dopamine makes you feel good. However, when you regularly smoke, eventually your brain does not produce as much dopamine on its own, and you need to smoke to feel good.
JUUL’s seductive design
“Nicotine delivery and cigarette equivalents from vaping a JUUL pod,” a study published by the NIH National Center for Biotechnology Information points out that because JUUL’s sleek pens deliver nicotine along with enticing flavors in a gentle burst of steam as opposed to a harsh blast of smoke, it tends to make them hard to resist, especially for teens and young adults. The study states, “Minimizing harshness and adaptive to user experience, JUUL’s design facilitates initiation to a high nicotine, and ultimately, highly addictive vaping product.”
Higher stakes for teens and young adults
Research reveals that the younger you begin smoking, the longer you end up smoking. Like maybe your whole life! According to cdc.gov, “Nearly 9 out of 10 adults who smoke cigarettes daily first try smoking by age 18, and 99% first try smoking by age 26.2”
The part of the brain responsible for judgment, decision making, and impulse control is not completely developed until 25. In addition to nicotine addiction, this makes the developing brains of teens and young adults particularly vulnerable to long-term consequences, such as
mood disorders, challenges with attention and learning, and permanent lowering of impulse control.
According to the SurgeonGeneral.gov/KnowTheRisks, “The nicotine in e-cigarettes and other tobacco products can also prime the adolescent brain for addiction to other drugs such as cocaine.”
Selling story, creating tragedy
First off, there is the expense. Once you’re addicted to nicotine, your habit becomes a bill. Something you need to pay every day, every week, and every month.
Then there’s the opportunity cost, the time it takes to smoke and the distraction it provides that takes you away from getting to know yourself.
And then there’s the health aspect. Prematurely aged skin, stained teeth, tainted lungs and heart—potential tragedy. This reality is the story the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is tasked with telling.
What copywriter wants to contribute to tragedy?