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Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising

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E-Mail – img39084

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JUUL frequently engaged with consumers who signed up for their newsletter through emails. In the first year of the company, emails were primarily intended to familiarize consumers with the product. Many of the emails were invites to sampling tours in which attendees could receive a “complimentary JUUL starter kit.”

Flavors are a focus of many of the company’s emails with specific flavors such as Mango and Mint profiled often on the email alongside laudatory consumer testimonials such as “Love, Love, Love the mango pods!!” and “Start your week right. Mango is here…”

Emails are also used to introduce new products and incentives are provided to those consumers who auto-subscribe to JUUL pods. For example, a series of emails in October 2018 that announced a free “limited edition” turquoise JUUL device to consumers who committed to a 3 month subscription of two 4-pod packs of JUUL per month.

#juul – img40383

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JUUL extensively used hashtags, including #juul, to expand the reach of the company’s postings on Instagram. The popularity of #juul increased the visibility of the product among youth. Enthusiasm for #juul also encouraged a number of youthful users of the product to post these own images to the hashtag. This includes images and videos of youthful users posing with five JUULs in their mouth, doing tricks with the JUUL, having a party session with the device, or posting memes on JUUL. The youthful imagery on #juul and prolific use of it by youth possibly helped extend JUUL’s marketing efforts.

JUUL ceased posting on social media (Instagram and Facebook) in November 2018. However, #juul count continues to rise.

#juul posts count:
November 2018 – 260,866
January 21, 2019 – 336,308
March 5, 2019 – 391,930
June 29, 2019 – 518,287
October 14, 2019 – 610,848

Community Instagram – img40271

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IQOS Friends (@iqos_friends) and IQOS Stories (@iqos.stories) are two Instagram accounts that exclusively post IQOS-related content. The @iqos_friends account has a large following with over 50,000 followers. The account is involved in an extensive online network in which IQOS users tag @iqos_friends in their photos, and the account tags them when it reposts their content. Many of its posts are content from users in the community, making the account a gallery featuring the lifestyles of IQOS users, influencers, and Brand Ambassadors around the world in addition to photos of IQOS events and devices. These photographs clearly promote IQOS as desirable and Instagrammable. If @iqos_friends is run by Philip Morris International, then the account is an effective method of advertising; if not, then @iqos_friends is an indication that IQOS-related media has taken on a life of its own, making its promotion even harder to regulate.

IQOS Stories is tagged in many European brand ambassadors and influencers Instagram posts. It also occasionally runs giveaways of IQOS products and event tickets. The account nails the IQOS aesthetic of luxury living, promoting the device as a necessary accessory for the highlife.

Influencers/Celebrity – img40652

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Ambassador/Influencers
IQOS Brand Ambassadors and Influencers refer to Instagram users associated with the company who post IQOS-related material. Broadly speaking, influencers are social media users with large followings whom companies pay to post about or with their products. Meanwhile, IQOS Brand Ambassadors, who are most prominent in Romania, are users who post frequently with the device as a “hobby” but claim to be unpaid. While PMI previously paid influencers to promote IQOS, often through third party agencies, the company declared that it suspended its influencer campaign in May 2019 after Chris Kirkham of Reuters exposed the use of influencers under the age of 25—a violation of PMI’s internal standard for the minimum age of their models.

In late April 2019, two weeks before the suspension of the influencer campaign, IQOS hosted its largest influencer event yet to celebrate the release of the IQOS 3 Nippon model in Japan. Over 100 influencers, whose respective audiences ranged from 80,000 to 400,000 followers, each received a gift of a limited edition IQOS device in the traditional Japanese colors of red and white and were invited to the special event. The influencers then proceeded to flood Instagram with photos of themselves and their new devices with a pre-scripted caption and the hashtag #iqosアンバサダー (Japanese for “ambassador”). Though the event has passed, the Nippon influencer campaign reflects PMI’s willingness to invest in social media platforms, which are youth targeted at core.

PMI’s large-scale influencer program appears to have stopped, but smaller-scale Brand Ambassadors carry on IQOS’ often youth-oriented social media presence. These social media promoters’ posts, which portray IQOS devices, gifts, events, and spaces, convey leisure and imply that IQOS is the key to being an attractive and high-status person. IQOS Brand Ambassadors claim to not be paid, but they note receiving benefits including gifts and entry to events—benefits that double as a form of payment and make the line between Brand Ambassadors and influencers blurry. It is unclear how people become Brand Ambassadors and whether or not they are PMI employees, but it seems that the company reaches out to social media users who post about IQOS and gives them the Brand Ambassador title. Others may begin as IQOS Coaches and later start posting on social media as Brand Ambassadors. Some details of the Brand Ambassador program are still unknown to company outsiders, but their pervasive presence on social media is undeniable.

Celebrities:
Philip Morris International is using the age-old strategy of using celebrities to drum up enthusiasm for its products. At the launch of its IQOS 3 device in Spain, it held a spectacular event at the Cibeles Palace in Madrid that was attended by a number of prominent celebrities including Monica Cruz, Paz Vega, Alberto Amman, Joaquin Reyes, Topacio Fresh and others. Jamiroquai front lined the event that was attended by more than 600 guests.

Studies have shown that celebrity endorsements adds value and significantly increases positive attitudes towards the brand. The effect is particularly strong among adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 years. The proliferation of images of celebrities attending and using IQOS on social media platforms such as Instagram targets young people including non-tobacco users and exposes them to tobacco marketing that they otherwise would not have been exposed to.

IQOS Events – img41324

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IQOS events are parties, concerts, exhibitions, and presentations that Philip Morris International hosts to cultivate loyalty, a sense of exclusivity, and public interest in new IQOS models. In addition to hosting its own events, PMI also sponsors others including festivals, public speaker events, fashion shows, and art installations. IQOS-hosted events are often held at grandiose venues like the Canary Islands’ Poema del Mar Aquarium, Curaçao’s Cabana Beach, and Russia’s Grand Ballroom Moscow. Others are more casual, trendy, and youth oriented like those at clubs and concert venues. These events are concentrated in Southern and Eastern Europe but have taken place in at least 23 countries across four continents. While the events shown in this gallery are primarily large-scale parties, IQOS also hosts more casual get-togethers like store openings, in-store speaker events, and booths at street fairs and festivals.

Common elements of IQOS events include upscale food and alcohol, often served in unusual manners; attractive women hosts; DJs or live music, which is often accompanied by dance or acrobatic performances and colorful projection shows; and a section of the venue where attendees can view and likely sample a large range of IQOS devices and accessories. Parties feature photographers and logo-laden backdrops like those on the red carpet, encouraging attendees to document their experiences and post them on social media. Much of the party decoration doubles as advertising: organizers often put up digital displays of the IQOS slogan “This changes everything,” and walls and banners are branded with hashtags so attendees can spread the word to friends. To convey a message of natural health and sustainability in line with their “smoke-free future,” the events have featured local and raw foods like sushi, the word “clean” in digital displays, and photo walls covered in plants. Other themes have included art, fashion, and technological innovation.

The events beam out a sense of elegance and luxury. Many are invitation-only, with celebrities and major influencers on the guest list, which contributes to the sense of exclusivity Philip Morris seeks to cultivate. These kinds of parties are likely to appeal to young adults, who may be attracted to the trendy party venues and private concerts with artists like Jamiroquai and Jason Derulo.

Despite Philip Morris International’s insistence that IQOS is intended for adult smokers only, the trendiness, youthfulness, and social media presence at IQOS events suggest that the intent of the events is, in reality, to attract more young users regardless of their smoking histories.

JUUL Events – img35892

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Between June 4 and December 8, 2015 JUUL held at least 25 events in metro New York (8), metro Los Angeles (9), Las Vegas (5), Miami (1) and one each in Southampton, New York and Ventura, California. The attendees were young trend setters and free samples of JUUL’s devices and vapor pods were distributed in large quantities. Imagery from the Vaporized campaign was featured. At the events, a JUUL system was enclosed in a jewel box and displayed much like a precious jewel on tall LED lit pedestals.

The events were organized by BeCore, a Los Angeles firm which manages: “sampling tours, experimental marketing, brand activation.” The company explained that for the JUUL Vapor Lounge it: “designed, fabricated and managed a custom container to function as a mobile sampling lounge.” BeCore reported that 5000+ free samples were distributed per event. Boxman Studios (Charlotte, NC) modified a shipping container (a 20’ x 8’ steel box) into a: modern, inviting, and unique sampling experience for consumers.

The principal focus of these activities was to get a group of youthful influencers to accept gifts of JUUL products, to try out their various flavors, and then to popularize their products among their peers. The events were always free and featured popular bands such as CHAPMAN, illumanti AMS, Mary Kwok and others. Other events were movie nights held on rooftops. One Los Angeles event, managed by Cinespia, was an all night “slumber party” held in Hollywood’s Forever Cemetery featuring movies such as: Can't Hardly Wait, SCREAM, and Cruel Intentions.

JUUL sampling events continued well beyond its first year on the market. In 2016 and 2017, the company held sampling events in large metropolitan cities including Miami and New York city. For these events, JUUL hired young attractive women to distribute free samples of its products and later on after it admitted that the US Food and Drug Administration forbade free sampling of tobacco products, charged $1 for the samples. In 2018, JUUL sponsored a “Music in Film Summit” at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Celebrities such as Nicholas Cage, Elijah Wood and Dan Reynolds and Tyler Glen of rock band Imagine Dragons were photographed at the JUUL lounge. Celebrities were given the option of having their JUUL sample custom-engraved at the lounge.

Twitter – img36837

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Since its inception, JUUL as advertised heavily on multiple social media platforms. Advertising campaigns were often simultaneously posted on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

By heavily marketing via youth oriented sites such as Instagram, JUUL established its popularity among teens by stimulating a community of “JUULers” who post enormous volumes of favorable comments across social media channels. Enthusiasm among this group was ginned up by JUUL’s paid “influencers” – individuals with large inventories of followers on social media who serve as brand ambassadors. JUUL has used influencers to create and nurture conversations about their brand. Influencers contribute what appears to be independent user generated content which is influential, in part, due to its perceived independence from marketers’ influences. 

Hashtags are of special interest as they have been extensively used by JUUL and greatly expand the reach of the company’s social media postings. Hashtags connections used in their Instagram postings can be considered in several categories: Those created by JUUL (eg. #juul, #juulvapor, #switchtojuul, #vaporized); JUUL focused but created by customers or vendors (eg. #juulnation,#juullife); and trending topics unrelated to JUUL (eg. #mothersday, #goldenglobes, #nyc).

Comparing JUUL’s first year on the market with its third, JUUL actually ramped up its hashtag use substantially.
Under pressure from imminent FDA action, investigations by several state attorneys general, a bevy of class action lawsuits, and intense media criticism JUUL repeatedly deleted large segments of its social media history. On November 14, 2018 announced a halt to their social media advertising. While JUUL has halted its own posts, the viral peer to peer spread among teens the company initiated will live on indefinitely, or at least until the teen craze for JUUL abates.

E-Mail – img39085

by

JUUL frequently engaged with consumers who signed up for their newsletter through emails. In the first year of the company, emails were primarily intended to familiarize consumers with the product. Many of the emails were invites to sampling tours in which attendees could receive a “complimentary JUUL starter kit.”

Flavors are a focus of many of the company’s emails with specific flavors such as Mango and Mint profiled often on the email alongside laudatory consumer testimonials such as “Love, Love, Love the mango pods!!” and “Start your week right. Mango is here…”

Emails are also used to introduce new products and incentives are provided to those consumers who auto-subscribe to JUUL pods. For example, a series of emails in October 2018 that announced a free “limited edition” turquoise JUUL device to consumers who committed to a 3 month subscription of two 4-pod packs of JUUL per month.

#juul – img40384

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JUUL extensively used hashtags, including #juul, to expand the reach of the company’s postings on Instagram. The popularity of #juul increased the visibility of the product among youth. Enthusiasm for #juul also encouraged a number of youthful users of the product to post these own images to the hashtag. This includes images and videos of youthful users posing with five JUULs in their mouth, doing tricks with the JUUL, having a party session with the device, or posting memes on JUUL. The youthful imagery on #juul and prolific use of it by youth possibly helped extend JUUL’s marketing efforts.

JUUL ceased posting on social media (Instagram and Facebook) in November 2018. However, #juul count continues to rise.

#juul posts count:
November 2018 – 260,866
January 21, 2019 – 336,308
March 5, 2019 – 391,930
June 29, 2019 – 518,287
October 14, 2019 – 610,848

Community Instagram – img40272

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IQOS Friends (@iqos_friends) and IQOS Stories (@iqos.stories) are two Instagram accounts that exclusively post IQOS-related content. The @iqos_friends account has a large following with over 50,000 followers. The account is involved in an extensive online network in which IQOS users tag @iqos_friends in their photos, and the account tags them when it reposts their content. Many of its posts are content from users in the community, making the account a gallery featuring the lifestyles of IQOS users, influencers, and Brand Ambassadors around the world in addition to photos of IQOS events and devices. These photographs clearly promote IQOS as desirable and Instagrammable. If @iqos_friends is run by Philip Morris International, then the account is an effective method of advertising; if not, then @iqos_friends is an indication that IQOS-related media has taken on a life of its own, making its promotion even harder to regulate.

IQOS Stories is tagged in many European brand ambassadors and influencers Instagram posts. It also occasionally runs giveaways of IQOS products and event tickets. The account nails the IQOS aesthetic of luxury living, promoting the device as a necessary accessory for the highlife.

Influencers/Celebrity – img40653

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Ambassador/Influencers
IQOS Brand Ambassadors and Influencers refer to Instagram users associated with the company who post IQOS-related material. Broadly speaking, influencers are social media users with large followings whom companies pay to post about or with their products. Meanwhile, IQOS Brand Ambassadors, who are most prominent in Romania, are users who post frequently with the device as a “hobby” but claim to be unpaid. While PMI previously paid influencers to promote IQOS, often through third party agencies, the company declared that it suspended its influencer campaign in May 2019 after Chris Kirkham of Reuters exposed the use of influencers under the age of 25—a violation of PMI’s internal standard for the minimum age of their models.

In late April 2019, two weeks before the suspension of the influencer campaign, IQOS hosted its largest influencer event yet to celebrate the release of the IQOS 3 Nippon model in Japan. Over 100 influencers, whose respective audiences ranged from 80,000 to 400,000 followers, each received a gift of a limited edition IQOS device in the traditional Japanese colors of red and white and were invited to the special event. The influencers then proceeded to flood Instagram with photos of themselves and their new devices with a pre-scripted caption and the hashtag #iqosアンバサダー (Japanese for “ambassador”). Though the event has passed, the Nippon influencer campaign reflects PMI’s willingness to invest in social media platforms, which are youth targeted at core.

PMI’s large-scale influencer program appears to have stopped, but smaller-scale Brand Ambassadors carry on IQOS’ often youth-oriented social media presence. These social media promoters’ posts, which portray IQOS devices, gifts, events, and spaces, convey leisure and imply that IQOS is the key to being an attractive and high-status person. IQOS Brand Ambassadors claim to not be paid, but they note receiving benefits including gifts and entry to events—benefits that double as a form of payment and make the line between Brand Ambassadors and influencers blurry. It is unclear how people become Brand Ambassadors and whether or not they are PMI employees, but it seems that the company reaches out to social media users who post about IQOS and gives them the Brand Ambassador title. Others may begin as IQOS Coaches and later start posting on social media as Brand Ambassadors. Some details of the Brand Ambassador program are still unknown to company outsiders, but their pervasive presence on social media is undeniable.

Celebrities:
Philip Morris International is using the age-old strategy of using celebrities to drum up enthusiasm for its products. At the launch of its IQOS 3 device in Spain, it held a spectacular event at the Cibeles Palace in Madrid that was attended by a number of prominent celebrities including Monica Cruz, Paz Vega, Alberto Amman, Joaquin Reyes, Topacio Fresh and others. Jamiroquai front lined the event that was attended by more than 600 guests.

Studies have shown that celebrity endorsements adds value and significantly increases positive attitudes towards the brand. The effect is particularly strong among adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 years. The proliferation of images of celebrities attending and using IQOS on social media platforms such as Instagram targets young people including non-tobacco users and exposes them to tobacco marketing that they otherwise would not have been exposed to.

IQOS Events – img41325

by

IQOS events are parties, concerts, exhibitions, and presentations that Philip Morris International hosts to cultivate loyalty, a sense of exclusivity, and public interest in new IQOS models. In addition to hosting its own events, PMI also sponsors others including festivals, public speaker events, fashion shows, and art installations. IQOS-hosted events are often held at grandiose venues like the Canary Islands’ Poema del Mar Aquarium, Curaçao’s Cabana Beach, and Russia’s Grand Ballroom Moscow. Others are more casual, trendy, and youth oriented like those at clubs and concert venues. These events are concentrated in Southern and Eastern Europe but have taken place in at least 23 countries across four continents. While the events shown in this gallery are primarily large-scale parties, IQOS also hosts more casual get-togethers like store openings, in-store speaker events, and booths at street fairs and festivals.

Common elements of IQOS events include upscale food and alcohol, often served in unusual manners; attractive women hosts; DJs or live music, which is often accompanied by dance or acrobatic performances and colorful projection shows; and a section of the venue where attendees can view and likely sample a large range of IQOS devices and accessories. Parties feature photographers and logo-laden backdrops like those on the red carpet, encouraging attendees to document their experiences and post them on social media. Much of the party decoration doubles as advertising: organizers often put up digital displays of the IQOS slogan “This changes everything,” and walls and banners are branded with hashtags so attendees can spread the word to friends. To convey a message of natural health and sustainability in line with their “smoke-free future,” the events have featured local and raw foods like sushi, the word “clean” in digital displays, and photo walls covered in plants. Other themes have included art, fashion, and technological innovation.

The events beam out a sense of elegance and luxury. Many are invitation-only, with celebrities and major influencers on the guest list, which contributes to the sense of exclusivity Philip Morris seeks to cultivate. These kinds of parties are likely to appeal to young adults, who may be attracted to the trendy party venues and private concerts with artists like Jamiroquai and Jason Derulo.

Despite Philip Morris International’s insistence that IQOS is intended for adult smokers only, the trendiness, youthfulness, and social media presence at IQOS events suggest that the intent of the events is, in reality, to attract more young users regardless of their smoking histories.

IQOSInstagram – img43032

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Although there are eight country-specific PMI-run IQOS accounts on Instagram, the Japanese account (@iqos_jp) is the only one that is verified by Instagram as the official company presence. The account has the most followers and posts of the IQOS accounts (120 thousand followers and more than 500 posts) and is private, meaning that the account’s content is available only to approved followers. In order to get approved, users must be a verified IQOS user registered on the Japanese IQOS website. This process includes submitting an ID verifying Japanese residence and legal smoking age.

The account’s photos are colorful, stylish, and of professional quality, featuring IQOS devices, accessories, fashion, food and drinks, and locations where people can use IQOS. Some of the most common content in the posts includes product advertisements, event promotion, giveaways, collaborations with artists, and the opening of IQOS spots, or places such as restaurants and cafes where people can use IQOS.

The account occasionally reposts photos from community IQOS users who agree to provide their photos and confirm that they are of age.

Flavor Varieties – img30470

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A patently obvious device used by e-cigarette (e-cig) companies to attract teens is the promotion of youth-oriented flavors. In its flavored product lines, e-cig manufacturers have far exceeded the flavorings used by the combustible tobacco industry. Almost every flavor addictive available in the market is available as a vapor juice. With many e-cig manufacturers allowing consumers to pick and mix their own flavorings, the possibilities are endless.

e-cigs and vapor juices are available in a number including candy flavors such as gummi bears and bubble gum; baked good flavors such as peach cobbler and apple pie, alcoholic flavors such as beer and peach schnapps, variety of fruit and berry flavors and mint.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. In a recent study, researchers at UCSF who analyzed data from the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that adolescents who used e-cigs were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking1. In another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs2.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. UCSF: E-Cigarettes: Gateway to Nicotine Addiction for U.S. Teens, Says UCSF Study. Available at https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/03/112316/e-cigarettes-gateway-nicotine-addiction-us-teens-says-ucsf-study

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Candy – img32022

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The e-Cigarette (e-cig) industry fervently claims to target only adult and primarily established smokers. As much as e-cig companies deny it, the plethora of vape juices in alcoholic or sweetened flavors and sugary names serve to make these products appealing to children and teenagers who are curious to experiment with tobacco products and are taken in by false notions of the “safe nature” of e-cigs.

Appealing to an almost universal love for candy and sweets, e-cigs and ejuice are available in a number of childhood favorite flavors including bubble gum, gummys, Bazzoka, Kool-Aid, sweet tarts, cotton candy, gum balls, Swedish fish and cheerios. The images used in the ads are heavily borrowed from the food industry. Some e-cig companies (Mister Vapor) and vapor stores (Good Clean Vaoes) also use fairytale and anime characters to entice kids and teenagers to buy their products.

The sweet flavored additives in the vape juice help mask the bitterness of tobacco and the nicotine serves to addict teens. In addition to standard flavors, customers at retail “boutique” vape stores can enjoy the novel experience of working with a vapologist to create unique flavors by mixing any number of essences at a variety of nicotine strengths for a personalized vape. Some retail vape bars also have a “tasting bar” much like restaurants where consumers can try a variety of flavors.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs1.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Sex Sells – img30612

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Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

JUUL Events – img35893

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Between June 4 and December 8, 2015 JUUL held at least 25 events in metro New York (8), metro Los Angeles (9), Las Vegas (5), Miami (1) and one each in Southampton, New York and Ventura, California. The attendees were young trend setters and free samples of JUUL’s devices and vapor pods were distributed in large quantities. Imagery from the Vaporized campaign was featured. At the events, a JUUL system was enclosed in a jewel box and displayed much like a precious jewel on tall LED lit pedestals.

The events were organized by BeCore, a Los Angeles firm which manages: “sampling tours, experimental marketing, brand activation.” The company explained that for the JUUL Vapor Lounge it: “designed, fabricated and managed a custom container to function as a mobile sampling lounge.” BeCore reported that 5000+ free samples were distributed per event. Boxman Studios (Charlotte, NC) modified a shipping container (a 20’ x 8’ steel box) into a: modern, inviting, and unique sampling experience for consumers.

The principal focus of these activities was to get a group of youthful influencers to accept gifts of JUUL products, to try out their various flavors, and then to popularize their products among their peers. The events were always free and featured popular bands such as CHAPMAN, illumanti AMS, Mary Kwok and others. Other events were movie nights held on rooftops. One Los Angeles event, managed by Cinespia, was an all night “slumber party” held in Hollywood’s Forever Cemetery featuring movies such as: Can't Hardly Wait, SCREAM, and Cruel Intentions.

JUUL sampling events continued well beyond its first year on the market. In 2016 and 2017, the company held sampling events in large metropolitan cities including Miami and New York city. For these events, JUUL hired young attractive women to distribute free samples of its products and later on after it admitted that the US Food and Drug Administration forbade free sampling of tobacco products, charged $1 for the samples. In 2018, JUUL sponsored a “Music in Film Summit” at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Celebrities such as Nicholas Cage, Elijah Wood and Dan Reynolds and Tyler Glen of rock band Imagine Dragons were photographed at the JUUL lounge. Celebrities were given the option of having their JUUL sample custom-engraved at the lounge.

Twitter – img36838

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Since its inception, JUUL as advertised heavily on multiple social media platforms. Advertising campaigns were often simultaneously posted on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

By heavily marketing via youth oriented sites such as Instagram, JUUL established its popularity among teens by stimulating a community of “JUULers” who post enormous volumes of favorable comments across social media channels. Enthusiasm among this group was ginned up by JUUL’s paid “influencers” – individuals with large inventories of followers on social media who serve as brand ambassadors. JUUL has used influencers to create and nurture conversations about their brand. Influencers contribute what appears to be independent user generated content which is influential, in part, due to its perceived independence from marketers’ influences. 

Hashtags are of special interest as they have been extensively used by JUUL and greatly expand the reach of the company’s social media postings. Hashtags connections used in their Instagram postings can be considered in several categories: Those created by JUUL (eg. #juul, #juulvapor, #switchtojuul, #vaporized); JUUL focused but created by customers or vendors (eg. #juulnation,#juullife); and trending topics unrelated to JUUL (eg. #mothersday, #goldenglobes, #nyc).

Comparing JUUL’s first year on the market with its third, JUUL actually ramped up its hashtag use substantially.
Under pressure from imminent FDA action, investigations by several state attorneys general, a bevy of class action lawsuits, and intense media criticism JUUL repeatedly deleted large segments of its social media history. On November 14, 2018 announced a halt to their social media advertising. While JUUL has halted its own posts, the viral peer to peer spread among teens the company initiated will live on indefinitely, or at least until the teen craze for JUUL abates.

E-Mail – img39086

by

JUUL frequently engaged with consumers who signed up for their newsletter through emails. In the first year of the company, emails were primarily intended to familiarize consumers with the product. Many of the emails were invites to sampling tours in which attendees could receive a “complimentary JUUL starter kit.”

Flavors are a focus of many of the company’s emails with specific flavors such as Mango and Mint profiled often on the email alongside laudatory consumer testimonials such as “Love, Love, Love the mango pods!!” and “Start your week right. Mango is here…”

Emails are also used to introduce new products and incentives are provided to those consumers who auto-subscribe to JUUL pods. For example, a series of emails in October 2018 that announced a free “limited edition” turquoise JUUL device to consumers who committed to a 3 month subscription of two 4-pod packs of JUUL per month.

#juul – img40385

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JUUL extensively used hashtags, including #juul, to expand the reach of the company’s postings on Instagram. The popularity of #juul increased the visibility of the product among youth. Enthusiasm for #juul also encouraged a number of youthful users of the product to post these own images to the hashtag. This includes images and videos of youthful users posing with five JUULs in their mouth, doing tricks with the JUUL, having a party session with the device, or posting memes on JUUL. The youthful imagery on #juul and prolific use of it by youth possibly helped extend JUUL’s marketing efforts.

JUUL ceased posting on social media (Instagram and Facebook) in November 2018. However, #juul count continues to rise.

#juul posts count:
November 2018 – 260,866
January 21, 2019 – 336,308
March 5, 2019 – 391,930
June 29, 2019 – 518,287
October 14, 2019 – 610,848

Community Instagram – img40273

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IQOS Friends (@iqos_friends) and IQOS Stories (@iqos.stories) are two Instagram accounts that exclusively post IQOS-related content. The @iqos_friends account has a large following with over 50,000 followers. The account is involved in an extensive online network in which IQOS users tag @iqos_friends in their photos, and the account tags them when it reposts their content. Many of its posts are content from users in the community, making the account a gallery featuring the lifestyles of IQOS users, influencers, and Brand Ambassadors around the world in addition to photos of IQOS events and devices. These photographs clearly promote IQOS as desirable and Instagrammable. If @iqos_friends is run by Philip Morris International, then the account is an effective method of advertising; if not, then @iqos_friends is an indication that IQOS-related media has taken on a life of its own, making its promotion even harder to regulate.

IQOS Stories is tagged in many European brand ambassadors and influencers Instagram posts. It also occasionally runs giveaways of IQOS products and event tickets. The account nails the IQOS aesthetic of luxury living, promoting the device as a necessary accessory for the highlife.

Influencers/Celebrity – img40654

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Ambassador/Influencers
IQOS Brand Ambassadors and Influencers refer to Instagram users associated with the company who post IQOS-related material. Broadly speaking, influencers are social media users with large followings whom companies pay to post about or with their products. Meanwhile, IQOS Brand Ambassadors, who are most prominent in Romania, are users who post frequently with the device as a “hobby” but claim to be unpaid. While PMI previously paid influencers to promote IQOS, often through third party agencies, the company declared that it suspended its influencer campaign in May 2019 after Chris Kirkham of Reuters exposed the use of influencers under the age of 25—a violation of PMI’s internal standard for the minimum age of their models.

In late April 2019, two weeks before the suspension of the influencer campaign, IQOS hosted its largest influencer event yet to celebrate the release of the IQOS 3 Nippon model in Japan. Over 100 influencers, whose respective audiences ranged from 80,000 to 400,000 followers, each received a gift of a limited edition IQOS device in the traditional Japanese colors of red and white and were invited to the special event. The influencers then proceeded to flood Instagram with photos of themselves and their new devices with a pre-scripted caption and the hashtag #iqosアンバサダー (Japanese for “ambassador”). Though the event has passed, the Nippon influencer campaign reflects PMI’s willingness to invest in social media platforms, which are youth targeted at core.

PMI’s large-scale influencer program appears to have stopped, but smaller-scale Brand Ambassadors carry on IQOS’ often youth-oriented social media presence. These social media promoters’ posts, which portray IQOS devices, gifts, events, and spaces, convey leisure and imply that IQOS is the key to being an attractive and high-status person. IQOS Brand Ambassadors claim to not be paid, but they note receiving benefits including gifts and entry to events—benefits that double as a form of payment and make the line between Brand Ambassadors and influencers blurry. It is unclear how people become Brand Ambassadors and whether or not they are PMI employees, but it seems that the company reaches out to social media users who post about IQOS and gives them the Brand Ambassador title. Others may begin as IQOS Coaches and later start posting on social media as Brand Ambassadors. Some details of the Brand Ambassador program are still unknown to company outsiders, but their pervasive presence on social media is undeniable.

Celebrities:
Philip Morris International is using the age-old strategy of using celebrities to drum up enthusiasm for its products. At the launch of its IQOS 3 device in Spain, it held a spectacular event at the Cibeles Palace in Madrid that was attended by a number of prominent celebrities including Monica Cruz, Paz Vega, Alberto Amman, Joaquin Reyes, Topacio Fresh and others. Jamiroquai front lined the event that was attended by more than 600 guests.

Studies have shown that celebrity endorsements adds value and significantly increases positive attitudes towards the brand. The effect is particularly strong among adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 years. The proliferation of images of celebrities attending and using IQOS on social media platforms such as Instagram targets young people including non-tobacco users and exposes them to tobacco marketing that they otherwise would not have been exposed to.

IQOS Events – img41326

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IQOS events are parties, concerts, exhibitions, and presentations that Philip Morris International hosts to cultivate loyalty, a sense of exclusivity, and public interest in new IQOS models. In addition to hosting its own events, PMI also sponsors others including festivals, public speaker events, fashion shows, and art installations. IQOS-hosted events are often held at grandiose venues like the Canary Islands’ Poema del Mar Aquarium, Curaçao’s Cabana Beach, and Russia’s Grand Ballroom Moscow. Others are more casual, trendy, and youth oriented like those at clubs and concert venues. These events are concentrated in Southern and Eastern Europe but have taken place in at least 23 countries across four continents. While the events shown in this gallery are primarily large-scale parties, IQOS also hosts more casual get-togethers like store openings, in-store speaker events, and booths at street fairs and festivals.

Common elements of IQOS events include upscale food and alcohol, often served in unusual manners; attractive women hosts; DJs or live music, which is often accompanied by dance or acrobatic performances and colorful projection shows; and a section of the venue where attendees can view and likely sample a large range of IQOS devices and accessories. Parties feature photographers and logo-laden backdrops like those on the red carpet, encouraging attendees to document their experiences and post them on social media. Much of the party decoration doubles as advertising: organizers often put up digital displays of the IQOS slogan “This changes everything,” and walls and banners are branded with hashtags so attendees can spread the word to friends. To convey a message of natural health and sustainability in line with their “smoke-free future,” the events have featured local and raw foods like sushi, the word “clean” in digital displays, and photo walls covered in plants. Other themes have included art, fashion, and technological innovation.

The events beam out a sense of elegance and luxury. Many are invitation-only, with celebrities and major influencers on the guest list, which contributes to the sense of exclusivity Philip Morris seeks to cultivate. These kinds of parties are likely to appeal to young adults, who may be attracted to the trendy party venues and private concerts with artists like Jamiroquai and Jason Derulo.

Despite Philip Morris International’s insistence that IQOS is intended for adult smokers only, the trendiness, youthfulness, and social media presence at IQOS events suggest that the intent of the events is, in reality, to attract more young users regardless of their smoking histories.

IQOSInstagram – img43033

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Although there are eight country-specific PMI-run IQOS accounts on Instagram, the Japanese account (@iqos_jp) is the only one that is verified by Instagram as the official company presence. The account has the most followers and posts of the IQOS accounts (120 thousand followers and more than 500 posts) and is private, meaning that the account’s content is available only to approved followers. In order to get approved, users must be a verified IQOS user registered on the Japanese IQOS website. This process includes submitting an ID verifying Japanese residence and legal smoking age.

The account’s photos are colorful, stylish, and of professional quality, featuring IQOS devices, accessories, fashion, food and drinks, and locations where people can use IQOS. Some of the most common content in the posts includes product advertisements, event promotion, giveaways, collaborations with artists, and the opening of IQOS spots, or places such as restaurants and cafes where people can use IQOS.

The account occasionally reposts photos from community IQOS users who agree to provide their photos and confirm that they are of age.

Flavor Varieties – img30471

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A patently obvious device used by e-cigarette (e-cig) companies to attract teens is the promotion of youth-oriented flavors. In its flavored product lines, e-cig manufacturers have far exceeded the flavorings used by the combustible tobacco industry. Almost every flavor addictive available in the market is available as a vapor juice. With many e-cig manufacturers allowing consumers to pick and mix their own flavorings, the possibilities are endless.

e-cigs and vapor juices are available in a number including candy flavors such as gummi bears and bubble gum; baked good flavors such as peach cobbler and apple pie, alcoholic flavors such as beer and peach schnapps, variety of fruit and berry flavors and mint.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. In a recent study, researchers at UCSF who analyzed data from the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that adolescents who used e-cigs were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking1. In another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs2.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. UCSF: E-Cigarettes: Gateway to Nicotine Addiction for U.S. Teens, Says UCSF Study. Available at https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/03/112316/e-cigarettes-gateway-nicotine-addiction-us-teens-says-ucsf-study

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Candy – img32023

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The e-Cigarette (e-cig) industry fervently claims to target only adult and primarily established smokers. As much as e-cig companies deny it, the plethora of vape juices in alcoholic or sweetened flavors and sugary names serve to make these products appealing to children and teenagers who are curious to experiment with tobacco products and are taken in by false notions of the “safe nature” of e-cigs.

Appealing to an almost universal love for candy and sweets, e-cigs and ejuice are available in a number of childhood favorite flavors including bubble gum, gummys, Bazzoka, Kool-Aid, sweet tarts, cotton candy, gum balls, Swedish fish and cheerios. The images used in the ads are heavily borrowed from the food industry. Some e-cig companies (Mister Vapor) and vapor stores (Good Clean Vaoes) also use fairytale and anime characters to entice kids and teenagers to buy their products.

The sweet flavored additives in the vape juice help mask the bitterness of tobacco and the nicotine serves to addict teens. In addition to standard flavors, customers at retail “boutique” vape stores can enjoy the novel experience of working with a vapologist to create unique flavors by mixing any number of essences at a variety of nicotine strengths for a personalized vape. Some retail vape bars also have a “tasting bar” much like restaurants where consumers can try a variety of flavors.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs1.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Sex Sells – img30613

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Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

IQOSInstagram – img44596

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Although there are eight country-specific PMI-run IQOS accounts on Instagram, the Japanese account (@iqos_jp) is the only one that is verified by Instagram as the official company presence. The account has the most followers and posts of the IQOS accounts (120 thousand followers and more than 500 posts) and is private, meaning that the account’s content is available only to approved followers. In order to get approved, users must be a verified IQOS user registered on the Japanese IQOS website. This process includes submitting an ID verifying Japanese residence and legal smoking age.

The account’s photos are colorful, stylish, and of professional quality, featuring IQOS devices, accessories, fashion, food and drinks, and locations where people can use IQOS. Some of the most common content in the posts includes product advertisements, event promotion, giveaways, collaborations with artists, and the opening of IQOS spots, or places such as restaurants and cafes where people can use IQOS.

The account occasionally reposts photos from community IQOS users who agree to provide their photos and confirm that they are of age.

Flavor Varieties – img30472

by

A patently obvious device used by e-cigarette (e-cig) companies to attract teens is the promotion of youth-oriented flavors. In its flavored product lines, e-cig manufacturers have far exceeded the flavorings used by the combustible tobacco industry. Almost every flavor addictive available in the market is available as a vapor juice. With many e-cig manufacturers allowing consumers to pick and mix their own flavorings, the possibilities are endless.

e-cigs and vapor juices are available in a number including candy flavors such as gummi bears and bubble gum; baked good flavors such as peach cobbler and apple pie, alcoholic flavors such as beer and peach schnapps, variety of fruit and berry flavors and mint.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. In a recent study, researchers at UCSF who analyzed data from the 2011 and 2012 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that adolescents who used e-cigs were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking1. In another study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs2.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. UCSF: E-Cigarettes: Gateway to Nicotine Addiction for U.S. Teens, Says UCSF Study. Available at https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2014/03/112316/e-cigarettes-gateway-nicotine-addiction-us-teens-says-ucsf-study

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Candy – img32024

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The e-Cigarette (e-cig) industry fervently claims to target only adult and primarily established smokers. As much as e-cig companies deny it, the plethora of vape juices in alcoholic or sweetened flavors and sugary names serve to make these products appealing to children and teenagers who are curious to experiment with tobacco products and are taken in by false notions of the “safe nature” of e-cigs.

Appealing to an almost universal love for candy and sweets, e-cigs and ejuice are available in a number of childhood favorite flavors including bubble gum, gummys, Bazzoka, Kool-Aid, sweet tarts, cotton candy, gum balls, Swedish fish and cheerios. The images used in the ads are heavily borrowed from the food industry. Some e-cig companies (Mister Vapor) and vapor stores (Good Clean Vaoes) also use fairytale and anime characters to entice kids and teenagers to buy their products.

The sweet flavored additives in the vape juice help mask the bitterness of tobacco and the nicotine serves to addict teens. In addition to standard flavors, customers at retail “boutique” vape stores can enjoy the novel experience of working with a vapologist to create unique flavors by mixing any number of essences at a variety of nicotine strengths for a personalized vape. Some retail vape bars also have a “tasting bar” much like restaurants where consumers can try a variety of flavors.

Flavored cigarettes and flavored tobacco have long been held to be gateway products for children and teens. There is now a growing concern that the use of flavored e-cigs by youth could lead to them experimenting with regular cigarettes. A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that rates of e-cig use among U.S. youth more than doubled from 2011 to 2012, with 10 percent of high school students admitting to having used e-cigs. Almost 76% of youth who had tried an e-cig had also tried a regular cigarette. Altogether, in 2012 more than 1.78 million middle and high school students nationwide had tried e-cigs1.

With the Federal Drug Administration opting not to ban flavors in e-cigs, advocates fear that flavored e-cigs will serve to entice a new generation of kids to become addicted to nicotine based products.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013). E-cigarette use more than doubles among U.S. middle and high school students from 2011-2012. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2013/p0905-e-cigarette-use.html

Sex Sells – img30614

by

Tobacco companies know as much as anybody that “sex sells,” and they have no qualms with making use of phallic symbols or with objectifying women to sell their products.

Blu, the leading brand of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs), placed an advertisement for its product in February 2014. The ad featured the Blu logo front and center on an itsy bitsy bikini bottom of a shapely model. On the online version of the ad you could even zoom in on the picture. You don’t see the woman’s face only her belly button to her legs. Accompanying the ad was the slogan “Slim. Charged. Ready to Go.” The obvious sexual reference of the slogan is hard to miss. Blu also sponsored parties at Playboy’s top party schools that allowed partygoers to meet the Playmates. Playboy itself got into the act by creating its own Playboy e-cigs. Some of the ads for the Playboy e-cigs with the trademarked bunny symbol advertised free condoms with the purchase of the vapor device.

Phantom Smoke is a brand that in their advertising is shameless in its objectification of women. Many of the ads feature skimpily clothed women in subservient positions to men. An ad for PhatomSmoke has a woman suggestively sitting in the bathtub with the e-hookah between her teeth. Her lingerie is carelessly discarded on the rim of the bathtub. In another ad, a woman wearing racy black lingerie is on the floor holding onto an out stretched leg of a man sitting on a couch with an e-cig in his hand. An ad for Krave e-cigs has a woman dressed in a bodysuit sitting on a side of a sofa her legs slightly apart as she gazes towards the viewer.

Other tobacco ads exploit the “sex sells” market through innuendo and subliminal messaging. Many ads use phallic imagery.

Apart from online and print advertisements that exploit sex to sell the product, online videos are replete with sexual innuendo. An online video for Blu exploits sex to promote a cessation message. An ad for VIP e-cig featured a sultry-looking woman saying: “I want you to get it out. I want to see it. Feel it. Hold it. Put it in my mouth. I want to see how great it tastes.” The online and TV ad, which ran in Britain, attracted 937 complaints about its “overtly sexual” tone.

JUUL Events – img35894

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Between June 4 and December 8, 2015 JUUL held at least 25 events in metro New York (8), metro Los Angeles (9), Las Vegas (5), Miami (1) and one each in Southampton, New York and Ventura, California. The attendees were young trend setters and free samples of JUUL’s devices and vapor pods were distributed in large quantities. Imagery from the Vaporized campaign was featured. At the events, a JUUL system was enclosed in a jewel box and displayed much like a precious jewel on tall LED lit pedestals.

The events were organized by BeCore, a Los Angeles firm which manages: “sampling tours, experimental marketing, brand activation.” The company explained that for the JUUL Vapor Lounge it: “designed, fabricated and managed a custom container to function as a mobile sampling lounge.” BeCore reported that 5000+ free samples were distributed per event. Boxman Studios (Charlotte, NC) modified a shipping container (a 20’ x 8’ steel box) into a: modern, inviting, and unique sampling experience for consumers.

The principal focus of these activities was to get a group of youthful influencers to accept gifts of JUUL products, to try out their various flavors, and then to popularize their products among their peers. The events were always free and featured popular bands such as CHAPMAN, illumanti AMS, Mary Kwok and others. Other events were movie nights held on rooftops. One Los Angeles event, managed by Cinespia, was an all night “slumber party” held in Hollywood’s Forever Cemetery featuring movies such as: Can't Hardly Wait, SCREAM, and Cruel Intentions.

JUUL sampling events continued well beyond its first year on the market. In 2016 and 2017, the company held sampling events in large metropolitan cities including Miami and New York city. For these events, JUUL hired young attractive women to distribute free samples of its products and later on after it admitted that the US Food and Drug Administration forbade free sampling of tobacco products, charged $1 for the samples. In 2018, JUUL sponsored a “Music in Film Summit” at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Celebrities such as Nicholas Cage, Elijah Wood and Dan Reynolds and Tyler Glen of rock band Imagine Dragons were photographed at the JUUL lounge. Celebrities were given the option of having their JUUL sample custom-engraved at the lounge.

Twitter – img36839

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Since its inception, JUUL as advertised heavily on multiple social media platforms. Advertising campaigns were often simultaneously posted on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

By heavily marketing via youth oriented sites such as Instagram, JUUL established its popularity among teens by stimulating a community of “JUULers” who post enormous volumes of favorable comments across social media channels. Enthusiasm among this group was ginned up by JUUL’s paid “influencers” – individuals with large inventories of followers on social media who serve as brand ambassadors. JUUL has used influencers to create and nurture conversations about their brand. Influencers contribute what appears to be independent user generated content which is influential, in part, due to its perceived independence from marketers’ influences. 

Hashtags are of special interest as they have been extensively used by JUUL and greatly expand the reach of the company’s social media postings. Hashtags connections used in their Instagram postings can be considered in several categories: Those created by JUUL (eg. #juul, #juulvapor, #switchtojuul, #vaporized); JUUL focused but created by customers or vendors (eg. #juulnation,#juullife); and trending topics unrelated to JUUL (eg. #mothersday, #goldenglobes, #nyc).

Comparing JUUL’s first year on the market with its third, JUUL actually ramped up its hashtag use substantially.
Under pressure from imminent FDA action, investigations by several state attorneys general, a bevy of class action lawsuits, and intense media criticism JUUL repeatedly deleted large segments of its social media history. On November 14, 2018 announced a halt to their social media advertising. While JUUL has halted its own posts, the viral peer to peer spread among teens the company initiated will live on indefinitely, or at least until the teen craze for JUUL abates.

E-Mail – img39902

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JUUL frequently engaged with consumers who signed up for their newsletter through emails. In the first year of the company, emails were primarily intended to familiarize consumers with the product. Many of the emails were invites to sampling tours in which attendees could receive a “complimentary JUUL starter kit.”

Flavors are a focus of many of the company’s emails with specific flavors such as Mango and Mint profiled often on the email alongside laudatory consumer testimonials such as “Love, Love, Love the mango pods!!” and “Start your week right. Mango is here…”

Emails are also used to introduce new products and incentives are provided to those consumers who auto-subscribe to JUUL pods. For example, a series of emails in October 2018 that announced a free “limited edition” turquoise JUUL device to consumers who committed to a 3 month subscription of two 4-pod packs of JUUL per month.

#juul – img40386

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JUUL extensively used hashtags, including #juul, to expand the reach of the company’s postings on Instagram. The popularity of #juul increased the visibility of the product among youth. Enthusiasm for #juul also encouraged a number of youthful users of the product to post these own images to the hashtag. This includes images and videos of youthful users posing with five JUULs in their mouth, doing tricks with the JUUL, having a party session with the device, or posting memes on JUUL. The youthful imagery on #juul and prolific use of it by youth possibly helped extend JUUL’s marketing efforts.

JUUL ceased posting on social media (Instagram and Facebook) in November 2018. However, #juul count continues to rise.

#juul posts count:
November 2018 – 260,866
January 21, 2019 – 336,308
March 5, 2019 – 391,930
June 29, 2019 – 518,287
October 14, 2019 – 610,848

Community Instagram – img40274

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IQOS Friends (@iqos_friends) and IQOS Stories (@iqos.stories) are two Instagram accounts that exclusively post IQOS-related content. The @iqos_friends account has a large following with over 50,000 followers. The account is involved in an extensive online network in which IQOS users tag @iqos_friends in their photos, and the account tags them when it reposts their content. Many of its posts are content from users in the community, making the account a gallery featuring the lifestyles of IQOS users, influencers, and Brand Ambassadors around the world in addition to photos of IQOS events and devices. These photographs clearly promote IQOS as desirable and Instagrammable. If @iqos_friends is run by Philip Morris International, then the account is an effective method of advertising; if not, then @iqos_friends is an indication that IQOS-related media has taken on a life of its own, making its promotion even harder to regulate.

IQOS Stories is tagged in many European brand ambassadors and influencers Instagram posts. It also occasionally runs giveaways of IQOS products and event tickets. The account nails the IQOS aesthetic of luxury living, promoting the device as a necessary accessory for the highlife.

Influencers/Celebrity – img40655

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Ambassador/Influencers
IQOS Brand Ambassadors and Influencers refer to Instagram users associated with the company who post IQOS-related material. Broadly speaking, influencers are social media users with large followings whom companies pay to post about or with their products. Meanwhile, IQOS Brand Ambassadors, who are most prominent in Romania, are users who post frequently with the device as a “hobby” but claim to be unpaid. While PMI previously paid influencers to promote IQOS, often through third party agencies, the company declared that it suspended its influencer campaign in May 2019 after Chris Kirkham of Reuters exposed the use of influencers under the age of 25—a violation of PMI’s internal standard for the minimum age of their models.

In late April 2019, two weeks before the suspension of the influencer campaign, IQOS hosted its largest influencer event yet to celebrate the release of the IQOS 3 Nippon model in Japan. Over 100 influencers, whose respective audiences ranged from 80,000 to 400,000 followers, each received a gift of a limited edition IQOS device in the traditional Japanese colors of red and white and were invited to the special event. The influencers then proceeded to flood Instagram with photos of themselves and their new devices with a pre-scripted caption and the hashtag #iqosアンバサダー (Japanese for “ambassador”). Though the event has passed, the Nippon influencer campaign reflects PMI’s willingness to invest in social media platforms, which are youth targeted at core.

PMI’s large-scale influencer program appears to have stopped, but smaller-scale Brand Ambassadors carry on IQOS’ often youth-oriented social media presence. These social media promoters’ posts, which portray IQOS devices, gifts, events, and spaces, convey leisure and imply that IQOS is the key to being an attractive and high-status person. IQOS Brand Ambassadors claim to not be paid, but they note receiving benefits including gifts and entry to events—benefits that double as a form of payment and make the line between Brand Ambassadors and influencers blurry. It is unclear how people become Brand Ambassadors and whether or not they are PMI employees, but it seems that the company reaches out to social media users who post about IQOS and gives them the Brand Ambassador title. Others may begin as IQOS Coaches and later start posting on social media as Brand Ambassadors. Some details of the Brand Ambassador program are still unknown to company outsiders, but their pervasive presence on social media is undeniable.

Celebrities:
Philip Morris International is using the age-old strategy of using celebrities to drum up enthusiasm for its products. At the launch of its IQOS 3 device in Spain, it held a spectacular event at the Cibeles Palace in Madrid that was attended by a number of prominent celebrities including Monica Cruz, Paz Vega, Alberto Amman, Joaquin Reyes, Topacio Fresh and others. Jamiroquai front lined the event that was attended by more than 600 guests.

Studies have shown that celebrity endorsements adds value and significantly increases positive attitudes towards the brand. The effect is particularly strong among adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 years. The proliferation of images of celebrities attending and using IQOS on social media platforms such as Instagram targets young people including non-tobacco users and exposes them to tobacco marketing that they otherwise would not have been exposed to.

IQOS Events – img41327

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IQOS events are parties, concerts, exhibitions, and presentations that Philip Morris International hosts to cultivate loyalty, a sense of exclusivity, and public interest in new IQOS models. In addition to hosting its own events, PMI also sponsors others including festivals, public speaker events, fashion shows, and art installations. IQOS-hosted events are often held at grandiose venues like the Canary Islands’ Poema del Mar Aquarium, Curaçao’s Cabana Beach, and Russia’s Grand Ballroom Moscow. Others are more casual, trendy, and youth oriented like those at clubs and concert venues. These events are concentrated in Southern and Eastern Europe but have taken place in at least 23 countries across four continents. While the events shown in this gallery are primarily large-scale parties, IQOS also hosts more casual get-togethers like store openings, in-store speaker events, and booths at street fairs and festivals.

Common elements of IQOS events include upscale food and alcohol, often served in unusual manners; attractive women hosts; DJs or live music, which is often accompanied by dance or acrobatic performances and colorful projection shows; and a section of the venue where attendees can view and likely sample a large range of IQOS devices and accessories. Parties feature photographers and logo-laden backdrops like those on the red carpet, encouraging attendees to document their experiences and post them on social media. Much of the party decoration doubles as advertising: organizers often put up digital displays of the IQOS slogan “This changes everything,” and walls and banners are branded with hashtags so attendees can spread the word to friends. To convey a message of natural health and sustainability in line with their “smoke-free future,” the events have featured local and raw foods like sushi, the word “clean” in digital displays, and photo walls covered in plants. Other themes have included art, fashion, and technological innovation.

The events beam out a sense of elegance and luxury. Many are invitation-only, with celebrities and major influencers on the guest list, which contributes to the sense of exclusivity Philip Morris seeks to cultivate. These kinds of parties are likely to appeal to young adults, who may be attracted to the trendy party venues and private concerts with artists like Jamiroquai and Jason Derulo.

Despite Philip Morris International’s insistence that IQOS is intended for adult smokers only, the trendiness, youthfulness, and social media presence at IQOS events suggest that the intent of the events is, in reality, to attract more young users regardless of their smoking histories.

JUUL Events – img35895

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Between June 4 and December 8, 2015 JUUL held at least 25 events in metro New York (8), metro Los Angeles (9), Las Vegas (5), Miami (1) and one each in Southampton, New York and Ventura, California. The attendees were young trend setters and free samples of JUUL’s devices and vapor pods were distributed in large quantities. Imagery from the Vaporized campaign was featured. At the events, a JUUL system was enclosed in a jewel box and displayed much like a precious jewel on tall LED lit pedestals.

The events were organized by BeCore, a Los Angeles firm which manages: “sampling tours, experimental marketing, brand activation.” The company explained that for the JUUL Vapor Lounge it: “designed, fabricated and managed a custom container to function as a mobile sampling lounge.” BeCore reported that 5000+ free samples were distributed per event. Boxman Studios (Charlotte, NC) modified a shipping container (a 20’ x 8’ steel box) into a: modern, inviting, and unique sampling experience for consumers.

The principal focus of these activities was to get a group of youthful influencers to accept gifts of JUUL products, to try out their various flavors, and then to popularize their products among their peers. The events were always free and featured popular bands such as CHAPMAN, illumanti AMS, Mary Kwok and others. Other events were movie nights held on rooftops. One Los Angeles event, managed by Cinespia, was an all night “slumber party” held in Hollywood’s Forever Cemetery featuring movies such as: Can't Hardly Wait, SCREAM, and Cruel Intentions.

JUUL sampling events continued well beyond its first year on the market. In 2016 and 2017, the company held sampling events in large metropolitan cities including Miami and New York city. For these events, JUUL hired young attractive women to distribute free samples of its products and later on after it admitted that the US Food and Drug Administration forbade free sampling of tobacco products, charged $1 for the samples. In 2018, JUUL sponsored a “Music in Film Summit” at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. Celebrities such as Nicholas Cage, Elijah Wood and Dan Reynolds and Tyler Glen of rock band Imagine Dragons were photographed at the JUUL lounge. Celebrities were given the option of having their JUUL sample custom-engraved at the lounge.

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Since its inception, JUUL as advertised heavily on multiple social media platforms. Advertising campaigns were often simultaneously posted on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

By heavily marketing via youth oriented sites such as Instagram, JUUL established its popularity among teens by stimulating a community of “JUULers” who post enormous volumes of favorable comments across social media channels. Enthusiasm among this group was ginned up by JUUL’s paid “influencers” – individuals with large inventories of followers on social media who serve as brand ambassadors. JUUL has used influencers to create and nurture conversations about their brand. Influencers contribute what appears to be independent user generated content which is influential, in part, due to its perceived independence from marketers’ influences. 

Hashtags are of special interest as they have been extensively used by JUUL and greatly expand the reach of the company’s social media postings. Hashtags connections used in their Instagram postings can be considered in several categories: Those created by JUUL (eg. #juul, #juulvapor, #switchtojuul, #vaporized); JUUL focused but created by customers or vendors (eg. #juulnation,#juullife); and trending topics unrelated to JUUL (eg. #mothersday, #goldenglobes, #nyc).

Comparing JUUL’s first year on the market with its third, JUUL actually ramped up its hashtag use substantially.
Under pressure from imminent FDA action, investigations by several state attorneys general, a bevy of class action lawsuits, and intense media criticism JUUL repeatedly deleted large segments of its social media history. On November 14, 2018 announced a halt to their social media advertising. While JUUL has halted its own posts, the viral peer to peer spread among teens the company initiated will live on indefinitely, or at least until the teen craze for JUUL abates.

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JUUL frequently engaged with consumers who signed up for their newsletter through emails. In the first year of the company, emails were primarily intended to familiarize consumers with the product. Many of the emails were invites to sampling tours in which attendees could receive a “complimentary JUUL starter kit.”

Flavors are a focus of many of the company’s emails with specific flavors such as Mango and Mint profiled often on the email alongside laudatory consumer testimonials such as “Love, Love, Love the mango pods!!” and “Start your week right. Mango is here…”

Emails are also used to introduce new products and incentives are provided to those consumers who auto-subscribe to JUUL pods. For example, a series of emails in October 2018 that announced a free “limited edition” turquoise JUUL device to consumers who committed to a 3 month subscription of two 4-pod packs of JUUL per month.

#juul – img40387

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JUUL extensively used hashtags, including #juul, to expand the reach of the company’s postings on Instagram. The popularity of #juul increased the visibility of the product among youth. Enthusiasm for #juul also encouraged a number of youthful users of the product to post these own images to the hashtag. This includes images and videos of youthful users posing with five JUULs in their mouth, doing tricks with the JUUL, having a party session with the device, or posting memes on JUUL. The youthful imagery on #juul and prolific use of it by youth possibly helped extend JUUL’s marketing efforts.

JUUL ceased posting on social media (Instagram and Facebook) in November 2018. However, #juul count continues to rise.

#juul posts count:
November 2018 – 260,866
January 21, 2019 – 336,308
March 5, 2019 – 391,930
June 29, 2019 – 518,287
October 14, 2019 – 610,848

Community Instagram – img40275

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IQOS Friends (@iqos_friends) and IQOS Stories (@iqos.stories) are two Instagram accounts that exclusively post IQOS-related content. The @iqos_friends account has a large following with over 50,000 followers. The account is involved in an extensive online network in which IQOS users tag @iqos_friends in their photos, and the account tags them when it reposts their content. Many of its posts are content from users in the community, making the account a gallery featuring the lifestyles of IQOS users, influencers, and Brand Ambassadors around the world in addition to photos of IQOS events and devices. These photographs clearly promote IQOS as desirable and Instagrammable. If @iqos_friends is run by Philip Morris International, then the account is an effective method of advertising; if not, then @iqos_friends is an indication that IQOS-related media has taken on a life of its own, making its promotion even harder to regulate.

IQOS Stories is tagged in many European brand ambassadors and influencers Instagram posts. It also occasionally runs giveaways of IQOS products and event tickets. The account nails the IQOS aesthetic of luxury living, promoting the device as a necessary accessory for the highlife.

Influencers/Celebrity – img40656

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Ambassador/Influencers
IQOS Brand Ambassadors and Influencers refer to Instagram users associated with the company who post IQOS-related material. Broadly speaking, influencers are social media users with large followings whom companies pay to post about or with their products. Meanwhile, IQOS Brand Ambassadors, who are most prominent in Romania, are users who post frequently with the device as a “hobby” but claim to be unpaid. While PMI previously paid influencers to promote IQOS, often through third party agencies, the company declared that it suspended its influencer campaign in May 2019 after Chris Kirkham of Reuters exposed the use of influencers under the age of 25—a violation of PMI’s internal standard for the minimum age of their models.

In late April 2019, two weeks before the suspension of the influencer campaign, IQOS hosted its largest influencer event yet to celebrate the release of the IQOS 3 Nippon model in Japan. Over 100 influencers, whose respective audiences ranged from 80,000 to 400,000 followers, each received a gift of a limited edition IQOS device in the traditional Japanese colors of red and white and were invited to the special event. The influencers then proceeded to flood Instagram with photos of themselves and their new devices with a pre-scripted caption and the hashtag #iqosアンバサダー (Japanese for “ambassador”). Though the event has passed, the Nippon influencer campaign reflects PMI’s willingness to invest in social media platforms, which are youth targeted at core.

PMI’s large-scale influencer program appears to have stopped, but smaller-scale Brand Ambassadors carry on IQOS’ often youth-oriented social media presence. These social media promoters’ posts, which portray IQOS devices, gifts, events, and spaces, convey leisure and imply that IQOS is the key to being an attractive and high-status person. IQOS Brand Ambassadors claim to not be paid, but they note receiving benefits including gifts and entry to events—benefits that double as a form of payment and make the line between Brand Ambassadors and influencers blurry. It is unclear how people become Brand Ambassadors and whether or not they are PMI employees, but it seems that the company reaches out to social media users who post about IQOS and gives them the Brand Ambassador title. Others may begin as IQOS Coaches and later start posting on social media as Brand Ambassadors. Some details of the Brand Ambassador program are still unknown to company outsiders, but their pervasive presence on social media is undeniable.

Celebrities:
Philip Morris International is using the age-old strategy of using celebrities to drum up enthusiasm for its products. At the launch of its IQOS 3 device in Spain, it held a spectacular event at the Cibeles Palace in Madrid that was attended by a number of prominent celebrities including Monica Cruz, Paz Vega, Alberto Amman, Joaquin Reyes, Topacio Fresh and others. Jamiroquai front lined the event that was attended by more than 600 guests.

Studies have shown that celebrity endorsements adds value and significantly increases positive attitudes towards the brand. The effect is particularly strong among adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 years. The proliferation of images of celebrities attending and using IQOS on social media platforms such as Instagram targets young people including non-tobacco users and exposes them to tobacco marketing that they otherwise would not have been exposed to.

IQOS Events – img41328

by

IQOS events are parties, concerts, exhibitions, and presentations that Philip Morris International hosts to cultivate loyalty, a sense of exclusivity, and public interest in new IQOS models. In addition to hosting its own events, PMI also sponsors others including festivals, public speaker events, fashion shows, and art installations. IQOS-hosted events are often held at grandiose venues like the Canary Islands’ Poema del Mar Aquarium, Curaçao’s Cabana Beach, and Russia’s Grand Ballroom Moscow. Others are more casual, trendy, and youth oriented like those at clubs and concert venues. These events are concentrated in Southern and Eastern Europe but have taken place in at least 23 countries across four continents. While the events shown in this gallery are primarily large-scale parties, IQOS also hosts more casual get-togethers like store openings, in-store speaker events, and booths at street fairs and festivals.

Common elements of IQOS events include upscale food and alcohol, often served in unusual manners; attractive women hosts; DJs or live music, which is often accompanied by dance or acrobatic performances and colorful projection shows; and a section of the venue where attendees can view and likely sample a large range of IQOS devices and accessories. Parties feature photographers and logo-laden backdrops like those on the red carpet, encouraging attendees to document their experiences and post them on social media. Much of the party decoration doubles as advertising: organizers often put up digital displays of the IQOS slogan “This changes everything,” and walls and banners are branded with hashtags so attendees can spread the word to friends. To convey a message of natural health and sustainability in line with their “smoke-free future,” the events have featured local and raw foods like sushi, the word “clean” in digital displays, and photo walls covered in plants. Other themes have included art, fashion, and technological innovation.

The events beam out a sense of elegance and luxury. Many are invitation-only, with celebrities and major influencers on the guest list, which contributes to the sense of exclusivity Philip Morris seeks to cultivate. These kinds of parties are likely to appeal to young adults, who may be attracted to the trendy party venues and private concerts with artists like Jamiroquai and Jason Derulo.

Despite Philip Morris International’s insistence that IQOS is intended for adult smokers only, the trendiness, youthfulness, and social media presence at IQOS events suggest that the intent of the events is, in reality, to attract more young users regardless of their smoking histories.

IQOSInstagram – img44597

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Although there are eight country-specific PMI-run IQOS accounts on Instagram, the Japanese account (@iqos_jp) is the only one that is verified by Instagram as the official company presence. The account has the most followers and posts of the IQOS accounts (120 thousand followers and more than 500 posts) and is private, meaning that the account’s content is available only to approved followers. In order to get approved, users must be a verified IQOS user registered on the Japanese IQOS website. This process includes submitting an ID verifying Japanese residence and legal smoking age.

The account’s photos are colorful, stylish, and of professional quality, featuring IQOS devices, accessories, fashion, food and drinks, and locations where people can use IQOS. Some of the most common content in the posts includes product advertisements, event promotion, giveaways, collaborations with artists, and the opening of IQOS spots, or places such as restaurants and cafes where people can use IQOS.

The account occasionally reposts photos from community IQOS users who agree to provide their photos and confirm that they are of age.