“While the campaign wasn’t targeted specifically at teenagers, a former senior manager said that he and others in the company were well aware it could appeal to them. After Juuls went on sale in June 2015, he said, the company quickly realized that teenagers were, in fact, using them because they posted images of themselves vaping Juuls on social media.” Matt Richtel and Sheila Kaplan in the NYT: Did Juul Lure Teenagers and Get ‘Customers for Life’? (In politics, follow the money. In the startup world, follow the valuation. You don’t get a $15 billion valuation because investors think you’re developing a method to get smoker’s to quit…)

+ “The tobacco industry says it no longer tries to hook new generations of smokers. So what’s behind the legions of beautiful young people in smoking, vaping and partying posts with the same hashtags?” NYT: Big Tobacco’s Global Reach on Social Media.