Juul Shake-up: C.E.O. Steps Down

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

The chief executive of Juul Labs, the dominant e-cigarette company that has been the target of public and regulatory outrage over the soaring use of teenage vaping, stepped down on Wednesday.

The executive, Kevin Burns, will be replaced by K.C. Croswaite, an executive from Altria, the major tobacco company that owns a 35 percent stake in Juul, the San-Francisco-based company.

Juul also said it would end one of its campaigns, “Make the Switch,” which the Food and Drug Administration had criticized as an effort to portray its e-cigarettes as safer than traditional cigarettes. The company also said it would not fight the Trump administration’s proposal to ban flavored e-cigarettes.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/health/juul-vaping.html

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Short article.

WaPo article has indicated that the ads are now suspended -

E-cigarette giant Juul announces staff shakeup, suspends advertising in the United States

By Washington Post Staff
September 25, 2019 at 7:51 a.m. EDT

The chief executive officer of Juul Labs is stepping down and will be replaced by a top official from Altria, a part owner of Juul. The company also said that it will not lobby against a proposed ban on most flavored vaping products announced recently by President Trump.

This is a developing story. It will be updated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2019/09/25/e-cigarette-giant-juul-announces-staff-shakeup-suspends-advertising-in-the-united-states/

[mathematic]

1. Huh, where are all those people saying anti-vape is a Big Tabacco conspiracy?

Just last week, people were tripping over themselves blaming Big Tobacco for the anti-vape movement. I told 'em big tobacco IS big vape and here we see it plainly.

[jayfish]

2. Right Here.

I love how you use the word 'conspiracy" to evoke some tin-foil hat feelings against us.

Things are going to plan and you are still falling for it. Independent retailers, who are not beholden to the tobacco companies, will be the first to go. Once they are out of the picture big tobacco will drop a "mea culpa" on vaping and discontinue mfg and sales of thier e-cigarette product. That leaves cigarettes.

The damage is already done and this plan will continue to it's ultimate conclusion.

ON EDIT: In case you didn't know it, tobacco companies are know to engage in conspiracies.

[mathematic]

3. Yes, the Big Tabacco conspiracy is that Vaping is harm-free

Just like their old conspiracy, that smoking is harm-free. The conspiracy being alleged last week was that Big Tobacco was actually working to destroy vaping. FUCKING LOL.

Go ahead and open up any of those threads from last week and look at how many posts there are about Big Tobacco orchestrating the attacks on vaping. YOU, in the very post I'm responding to, are saying that "things are going to plan" and that I'm "still falling for it"! Is this not an allegation of a Big Tobacco conspiracy that intends to destroy vaping? And yet, here we see the biggest vaping company just had it's CEO handpicked by Altria, history's most notorious tobacco company. Who, exactly, is still falling for what?

[jayfish]

4. So Gullible.

The E-Cig Industry Will Choke on New FDA Regulations—Except Big Tobacco (2014)

Per the FDA’s proposal, any e-cig product made after 2007, including new models, must get FDA approval to be sold. That means hiring experts to do medical research to determine the health impact of the device, which can take months and cost an estimated $3-4 million and take 5,000 hours for each application.
Needless to say, most of the merchants selling nicotine-infused liquid for vaporizers don’t have that kind of cash. Vape shops — which, despite statewide vaping bans and increased pressure from the government to stymie the trend are popping up all over the country — would be left with no suppliers to source products for their stores from.

Special Report: When it comes to e-cigs, Big Tobacco is concerned for your health (2015)

“If you read that (warning) as a smoker, you might think ‘Oh, I’ll just stick with a cigarette,’” said Oliver Kershaw, a former 15-a-day-smoker who quit through e-cigarettes and founded websites that advocate them.

Big tobacco companies have pushed for a range of controls on e-cigarettes. These include lengthy health warnings, reduced product ranges, restricted sales, and scientific testing requirements. Kershaw and others say such efforts risk squeezing small players. Too many rules would stifle innovation and reduce the range of products to “a very simple, utilitarian e-cigarette,” said Fraser Cropper, CEO of Totally Wicked, an independent e-cigarette company based in the UK.

Big tobacco companies say their goal in pushing for firm control is not to hurt smaller competitors. Regulation will benefit consumers and e-cigarette companies alike by ensuring safety and quality standards and boosting confidence, they say. Small companies should not be exempt from responsible behavior.

Why the FDA’s new e-cigarette regulations are a gift to Big Tobacco (and could actually harm public health) (2016)

Because e-cigarettes compete with traditional cigarettes — and many e-cigs and vaping products are made by small upstart companies — major tobacco companies, such as Altria (a.k.a. Philip Morris), have sought to clamp down on this market. The Big Tobacco companies have created or acquired e-cig brands while also pushing for regulation that will make it more difficult for little guys to compete. With the new FDA rule, Big Tobacco is getting just what it wanted. (For more on how and why tobacco companies support e-cig regulation, see this paper, forthcoming in the Yale Journal on Regulation.)

The rise of vaping has nothing to do with Big Tobacco (2017)

What isn't reasonable is the narrative—popular in some quarters—that the rise of vaping is primarily or even substantially attributable to Big Tobacco. The major U.S. cigarette companies have no shortage of well-documented past faults, but they didn't invent e-cigarettes and they don't control the vaping market.

Indeed, in an extensive special report on e-cigarettes, Newsweek flatly concluded that “the multimillion-dollar tobacco conglomerates are losing” the battle for the e-cigarette market. In what remains a relatively new market with a huge number of small players, it is difficult to pin down reliable statistics. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Convenience Store News suggest the three largest U.S. tobacco companies combine to control a little over 60 percent of e-cigarette sales in gas stations and convenience stores. But it bears noting that convenience store and gas station sales of e-cigarettes are absolutely dwarfed by the burgeoning multibillion-dollar vape store market, where Big Tobacco has almost no footprint.

Makers of high-end vaping devices and e-liquids have carved out their own subculture that has just about nothing to do with the Big Tobacco firms, whom they'd love to see fail. Altogether, Big Tobacco accounts for no more than 25 percent of a global vapor-products market the business intelligence firm Euromonitor International expects will exceed $10 billion in 2017

Big tobacco comes out against vaping (2019)

In a surprising turn of events, big tobacco company Rothmans, Benson & Hedges has come out against vaping, particularly amongst teens.

Gov. Baker Issues 4-Month Ban On Vaping Product Sales In Mass. (Today)

Declaring a public health emergency in light of vape-related illnesses, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued a four-month ban on the sale of vaping products in the Commonwealth.

The ban, which takes effect immediately and runs through January 25, 2020, prohibits the sale of nicotine, flavored, non-flavored, and marijuana vaping products.

No banning of cigarettes, huh? When this ban expires, who do you think will be left standing in the Mass. vaping business? I'll give you a hint. It won't be independent shops that are not beholden to big tobacco. This is not some new idea. It was foreseen and you are doing BTs work for them. Unfortunately, it's too late to turn the ship.

[jayfish]

5. I Almost Forgot an Important Piece of This Puzzle.

FDA permits sale of IQOS Tobacco Heating System through premarket tobacco product application pathway (2019)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it has authorized the marketing of new tobacco products manufactured by Philip Morris Products S.A. for the IQOS “Tobacco Heating System” – an electronic device that heats tobacco-filled sticks wrapped in paper to generate a nicotine-containing aerosol. The FDA has placed stringent marketing restrictions on the products in an effort to prevent youth access and exposure.