Collection: Instagram

Since its inception, JUUL has 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 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, they announced a halt to their social media advertising. While JUUL has halted its 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.