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WASHINGTON (AP) – The young models and candy-colored graphics that propelled Juul to the top of the e-cigarette market have disappeared. Carolyn, a 54-year-old former smoker, has been replaced by television commercials touting Juul as an alternative to middle-aged smokers.
"I do not think anyone, including myself, thought I could make the change," said Carolyn, sitting in a suburban lounge while the piano music plays quietly in the back plan.
The slogan: "Make the change."
Under intense scrutiny amid a wave of vaping among minors, Juul goes on television with a multi-million dollar campaign that becomes a help to quit smoking for adults who are trying to smoke. But the strategy is causing concern among anti-tobacco experts and activists that the company is unproven in its claim.
On Thursday, six tobacco and health groups asked the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates e-cigarettes, to investigate Juul's marketing efforts on television, radio and others. supports.
"Juul, a product that, according to the FDA, is largely responsible for the current epidemic of use of highly addictive electronic cigarettes by young people, is advertised and widely commercialized as a smoking cessation product, without the review and the approval required by the FDA, "said the letter from the American Heart Association, the Truth Initiative, the American Academy of Pediatrics and three other groups.
In a statement, FDA spokesman Michael Felberbaum said the agency "continues to scrutinize potentially false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims" in order to ensure that the public " is not misled by mistakenly using inherently dangerous tobacco products for medical purposes ".
Neither Juul nor any other electronic cigarette has been approved by the FDA to help smokers quit.
Indeed, the Juul website contains the warning: "Juul products are not intended to be used as cessation products, including for the treatment or treatment of nicotine addiction" – an underlined point by a representative of Juul.
Over the past 50 years, the FDA has only licensed a few very trendy products, including nicotine gums, patches, lozenges and prescription drugs.
Anti-smoking experts are puzzled by the fact that the FDA has not stopped Juul from introducing his nicotine-emitting device to millions of American smokers trying to quit smoking.
"I think Juul bypasses the law and the FDA lets them get away with it," said Stan Glantz, a tobacco control researcher at the University of California at San Francisco.
The FDA's application is particularly important, according to Glantz and others, because e-cigarettes are not subject to the decades-old laws that prohibit the advertising of traditional cigarettes on television, radio, and billboards. display.
Most experts agree that e-cigarettes are less harmful than paper and tobacco varieties because they do not produce all the carcinogenic byproducts present in the smoke.
But researchers are only beginning to understand the unique risks of electronic cigarettes, which according to new science could damage the lungs and airways and contribute to precancerous growth. These risks have led some experts to conclude that smokers who use both cigarettes and electronic cigarettes would likely have no health benefits.
The results of a survey and a study suggest that about 10% to 30% of smokers who sweat can quit smoking. The others use both products.
Juul reports the results of a recent survey suggesting that nearly 50% of smokers who tried Juul quit within three months. The research funded by the company is based on online questionnaires. Participants did not undergo chemical tests to verify that they had stopped, a technique used in more rigorous studies.
Juul spent more than $ 11.8 million on TV commercials in the first four months of the year, according to the iSpot.tv advertising tracker. The spots were broadcast over 2,800 times on cable channels, including A & E, Food Network and Discovery Channel.
The TV campaign followed more than $ 75 million in radio, print, online and outdoor advertising spending last year, according to Kantar, a tracking and analytics company. . That was more than what was spent by tobacco giant Altria, Marlboro cigarette maker and a recent investor from Juul. Due to restrictions on tobacco advertising, Altria and other tobacco companies spend most of their marketing dollars on in-store displays and smoker promotional items.
Juul's ads carefully avoid the keywords associated with FDA approved smoking aids, such as "quit smoking," "addiction" and "health". Instead, the company's testimonials refer to Juul's "change" to get a "nicotine patch" and "improve" her life.
"I think Juul's ads are very carefully written and prepared to baffle the public," said Glantz.
The FDA has full discretion to decide which regulations to apply. In the case of electronic cigarettes, all vaping products currently on the market are technically illegal. An Obama era regulation required manufacturers to submit their claims by 2018. But the recently resigned Commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, decided that the FDA would only enforce the policy 2021, in part. because of complaints from the industry that previous regulations would eliminate most vaping companies.
"There are a ton of non-enforcement decisions going on at the FDA, and that's clearly what happened with Juul's advertising," said Eric Lindblom of the Faculty of Law at the University of New York. Georgetown University, former senior official of the FDA Tobacco Center.
The light regulatory approach taken by the United States contrasts with that of Europe, where nicotine levels are capped and advertising strictly regulated.
Britain and other countries have been successful in promoting e-cigarettes as a reduced-risk product for smokers without seeing the surge in smoking among minors, but they also ban most cigarette advertising. television, newspapers, magazines and websites.
FDA rules permit commercialization in all these formats, provided the ads carry a single warning message: "This product contains nicotine.Nicotine is an addictive chemical."
Paul Cheeseman, of Philadelphia, said that smokers might have to try a number of options before finding something that helps them quit. The 37-year-old accountant quit smoking two years ago after a neighbor handed him a Juul camera that he confiscated from his child.
Cheeseman said he thought the Juul commercials were effective because they exploit the negative feelings of smokers about "controlling the ritual of smoking." He said that Juul works because it helps to replace both nicotine and the physical ritual of smoking.
"Although Juul may not be the most reliable company, and the science is not yet very clear, I can say positively that Juul worked very well for me," he said.
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Follow Matthew Perrone at @AP_FDAwriter
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The Health and Science Department of the Associated Press is receiving support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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