BIG VAPE tells the high-drama, rags-to-riches story of the controversial electronic cigarette company Juul which transformed from a scrappy Silicon Valley tech start-up run by two idealistic Stanford graduate students intent on making the world a better place into a multi-billion-dollar tobacco company that sparked an epidemic of youth addiction and lung disease.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 In the early 2000s, there was this sense tech could do no wrong.
00:04 Move fast and break things.
00:06 That's the tech ethos.
00:07 It was wildly irresponsible.
00:11 There are a billion people who still smoke globally.
00:16 We saw this as this huge public health opportunity.
00:19 The way that Apple markets their products was a huge inspiration for me.
00:24 They're beautiful objects to be worshipped.
00:26 We joined the company because we wanted to take down big tobacco.
00:30 Our entire mission is to put them out of business.
00:33 And you just let them buy us?
00:36 It felt like they were partnering with the devil.
00:38 I don't think anyone could have anticipated how many children would want this product.
00:46 People at Juul were sending out free products to a long list of influencers and celebrities.
00:55 When you put something like the Juul campaign out into the world,
00:58 it's like releasing a genie from a bottle.
01:00 There is no going back.
01:01 And there are these 15-year-old kids who are doing the vape equivalent of chain smoking.
01:09 They blew up all the progress that was being made.
01:13 James and Ed had lost control.
01:16 Serious health problems linked to vaping.
01:18 Serious lung damage.
01:19 I was in so much pain that I seriously had to crouch.
01:22 I was going through respiratory failure.
01:24 We want to get on to the business of eliminating cigarettes and saving lives.
01:28 You're nothing but a marketer of a poison,
01:33 and your target has been young people.
01:36 #VAPEITMAKING #VAPEYOUTHERE
01:41 #VAPEYOUTHERE
01:46 #VAPEYOUTHERE
01:51 #VAPEYOUTHERE