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Juul: A case study in profits, addiction, and growth at all costs
What responsibility do designers have?
This Thursday, September 9th, marks the deadline for the FDA to decide which vaping products can stay on the market. The agency needs to determine if Juul’s products have enough public health benefit to justify their widespread use among teens. While Juul’s founders envisioned Juul as a safer alternative for smokers than combustible cigarettes, their sleek design, ease of use, fruity flavors, and edgy marketing made them incredibly popular with teenagers who had never smoked before.
Juul: A case study in the power of Design
Creating a luxury good
In the early 2000s, e-cigarettes emerged as an alternative to cigarettes by delivering the nicotine smokers crave without the carcinogens involved in combustible cigarettes. However e-cigarettes didn’t gain widespread appeal until Juul hit the scene in 2015.
Founded by two graduates of Stanford’s esteemed d.school, Adam Bowen and James Monsees, Juul understood the power of Design. Existing e-cigarettes on the market were cheap and basic, churned out from a variety of factories in China, and Bowen and Monsees realized that thoughtful design could be a massive differentiator.
In the pair’s thesis presentation in 2005, Bowen explained that through elevated design they could “take tobacco back to being a luxury good and not so much a drug delivery device that cigarettes have become.”
Early on, they recruited design giant Yvar Béhar, who was later named the “Most Influential Industrial Designer in the World”, to lead designs for Pax, Juul’s marijuana predecessor. Focusing on simplicity and elegance above all else, Béhar produced stunning products. After its 2012 launch, Pax was well-received, and people loved its sleek, modern feel.
Richard Mumby, the Chief Marketing Officer at Pax Labs, explained how his goal with Pax was “to make a strong connection within fashion and art, similar to what Beats by Dre has done…people in fashion…
