This Machine Kills
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Premium – 352. Big Vape, Small Cigs
🕑 Added 2024-07-08 22:41:42 +0000 UTCWe chat about an interesting case study in technology governance: the rise of vapes and the return of cigarettes. How do you create new markets for a product that is highly addictive but also extremely regulated (even banned)? The answer is to flaunt regulation, disrupt competitors, and create an image of coolness using social media influencers. Platforms like Uber learned their strategies from industries like big tobacco, and now the new crop of nicotine dealers are deploying the strategies of platforms like Uber.
The Vapes of Wrath https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1197959345
Juul Is an Easy Target—Let's Ban More Tech Products That Harm Us https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjk4q5/juul-is-an-easy-targetlets-ban-more-tech-products-that-harm-us
Why Uber and Lyft are taking a page out of big tobacco’s playbook in labor law battle https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/11/why-uber-and-lyft-are-taking-a-page-out-of-big-tobaccos-playbook-in-labor-law-battle
Government waters down vaping ban to win support of Greens https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-24/vaping-ban-watered-down-greens-support/104016012
How Big Tobacco enlists Black activists to fight menthol, vaping bans https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/06/21/menthol-ban-vaping-black-lgbt-activists/
Big Tobacco Heralds a Healthier World While Fighting Its Arrival https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/06/health/tobacco-fda-menthol-ban-nicotine.html
A Viral Cigarette Brand? In 2023? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/style/hestia-cigarettes-downtown.html
That Cloud of Smoke Is Not a Mirage https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/style/smoking-cigarettes-comeback.html
Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
Comments
Solid Water
When will capitalism bring us tobacco flavored cotton candy?
Spencer
I learned a while ago that what you inhale from vapes is an aerosol since only the water content actually gets vaporized, so even their name is just a euphemism to convince people it’s healthy.
