Popular e-cigarette maker Juul is facing multiple lawsuits, after reportedly purchasing ads on children sites, including popular websites such as Cartoon Network, Nick.com, and NickJr.com. In the past, Juul has also used younger models for marketing campaigns in order to appeal to a younger audience.
According to the CDC ( Center for Disease Control), between 2011-2019, use of e-cigarettes by middle school students alone has increased from 0.6 percent to 10.5 percent. During that time, the use of e-cigarettes among high school students has increased from 1.5 percent to 27.5 percent. Juul is considered a top distributor of these products, and is consistently marketing to a younger audience despite age restrictions. Juul has also contacted consumers through means of email to provide advice on how underage users can avoid the age restrictions and make online purchase of their products.
Between 2017 and 2018, Juul’s dollar sales hit a high of $942.6 million, showing an increase of 783 percent. The state of New York has produced a lawsuit against Juul for misrepresenting the safety of their products and targeting minors in their advertisement campaigns.[vc_text_separator title=”Do you think it’s ethical for Juul to have ads targeted towards minors?” color=”custom” accent_color=”#2bb673″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner]Ian Kemey, freshmanQuincy Brown, junior[/vc_column_inner]Avery Devlin, sophomoreJaime Crites, senior[/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner]
Blake Bodendieck • Mar 3, 2020 at 1:43 pm
It absolutely baffles me that companies like this would stoop low enough as to target children’s websites.