Vape Posts On Social Media Encouraging Teen Use, Study Says

A new study on Juul-related Instagram posts makes the case for stricter regulation on e-cigarette marketing -- especially when it comes to social media sites popular with younger crowds.

Looking at nearly 15,000 posts from March through May of 2018, the study found that more than a third of posts were promotional in nature -- containing branded marketing messages or links to websites where users could purchase vapes. More than half of the posts also featured content related to "youth culture and lifestyle."

That's important, the researchers say, because "the tobacco industry has historically used lifestyle and social acceptability appeals to market tobacco products, particularly to youth."
Many of these posts were generated not by Juul, but by social media users and other vape companies seeking to draw in business.

In a statement Tuesday, Juul spokesman Ted Kwong said, "At the time of this study, third-party users generated well over 99.999 percent of the Instagram content related to JUUL products." He cautioned against conflating the company's own posts during that period with "wholly unaffiliated third-party content, including content from entities we are actively suing for their inappropriate and unauthorized activities."

The study, published in the BMJ journal Tobacco Control, was funded by the Truth Initiative, an anti-tobacco advocacy group. David Dobbins, the group's chief operating officer, said the US Food and Drug Administration should "use its power to restrict e-cigarette manufacturers from using social media to market to young people." He also called on social media platforms to "adopt and enforce policies against the promotion of any tobacco products to young adults."
Juul, the company with the lion's share of the e-cigarette market, has come under increasing scrutiny by public health experts and the FDA for its popularity among youth. Some of this scrutiny has focused on the company's marketing, which has been the focus of lawsuits and other investigations into whether Juul deliberately targeted teens.

The company's marketing and social media code says it does "not feature images or situations intended for a youth audience."

Since the time when the authors of the new study collected their data, Juul has phased out much of its social media in the United States, shutting down its Facebook and Instagram accounts in November and scaling back its use of Twitter and YouTube. The company said in a statement last year that it has "a dedicated internal team focused on reporting inappropriate content to social media companies," such as third-party accounts that use the Juul name to sell products to underage users.

"We agree these types of posts are a serious problem and that is why we employ a social media monitoring team dedicated to submitting takedown requests of exactly the type of inappropriate third-party social media content the authors cite as problematic," said Kwong, adding that this team has resulted in the removal of "31,889 social media listings, including 25,405 individual Instagram posts, and an additional 1,251 Instagram accounts."