Vape Tricks On YouTube Are A Sneaky Way To Market To Teens

A decidedly lit phenomenon is the subject of a new study from a group of Yale researchers: vape trick videos on YouTube.

The researchers previously found that — right behind fruity flavors — young people say vape tricks were one of the leading reasons they wanted to try vaping. So they took a quantitative look at the most popular vaping trick videos on YouTube to find out who's making them and why they appeal to young people.

They found that the videos feature over 80 percent men. And that over half of those (mostly) bros were white.

More significantly, the researchers also found that nearly half of the videos were directly produced by vaping marketers or stores. It's likely that the rest of the videos—many from vaping "influencers"—were actually sponsored by vaping companies, said lead researcher Grace Kong. The giveaway? Prominently featured products and logos.

Nearly half of the videos were directly produced by vaping marketers or stores

"I don’t know if the private accounts are true private accounts, because they could be getting paid," Kong said.

In case you've been living under a rock, vaping (and Juuling) has spread so fast among teens that the U.S. Surgeon General has declared youth e-cigarette use an "epidemic." According to a December 2018 survey from the National Institutes of Health, 37 percent of high school seniors reported vaping over the last month. Each Juul cartridge has about as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. This is after teen smoking hit record lows throughout the 2010s.