The Devil's Playbook

May 28, 2021

What happens when the best of intentions collide with Silicon Valley, Big Tobacco, scientific research, the FDA, consumers, and billions of dollars? Journalist Etter writes this story, focusing on the startup company Juul and the large conglomerate Altria (formerly known as Phillip Morris). The two Stanford graduates behind Juul had decided in the 2000s that there was a niche to be filled in reducing the dependence of millions around the world on tobacco. They would do this by producing a system to deliver nicotine minus the killer chemicals produced from burning tobacco, thus potentially saving countless lives. This book details the Juul founders' struggle to find financing and develop an effective product. Etter interlaces the Juul narrative with the history of Altria's efforts to escape negative fallout and declining revenue after Phillip Morris and other tobacco companies reached a settlement with the U.S. government in 1998, for having knowingly sold harmful tobacco products for decades. Etter argues that Altria's 2018 acquisition of Juul problematized Juul's claim to be anti-tobacco; it came at a point of emerging public outrage over widespread use of Juul by young kids, plus new research showing possible adverse effects of vaping. Lawsuits, FDA investigations, and restrictions followed--circumstances that Etter says closely resemble what had happened earlier to Big Tobacco. The legal and regulatory battles around vaping are ongoing in the United States. VERDICT A well-told business story showing the unsurprising result when noble motives collide with corporate reality and the specter of large amounts of money.--Richard Maxwell, Porter Adventist Hosp. Lib., Denver

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Starred review from June 1, 2021
Nicotine is addictive. Ironically, so is the profitability of nicotine, and it is this incredibly seductive lure that acclaimed investigative journalist Etter deconstructs in her compulsively readable David-and-Goliath tale of two companies inextricably yoked to the phenomenon known as vaping. For years, Altria, the manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes, enjoyed an unassailable market position, until the Tobacco Wars of the 1990s forced the company to drastically curtail marketing strategies geared to the lucrative teen demographic. Meanwhile, in health-conscious California, two Stanford grad students forced to conceal their ciggie breaks looked for a workaround that would deliver all the punch of nicotine seemingly without the harmful side effects of smoking. The result was the Juul vaping system. As Juul's e-cigarette business lit up the marketplace, Altria conjured a deal that eventually sent both companies up in smoke. Writing with an objective clarity and dishing like an insider-hipster, Etter offers a powerful indictment of both sides of the same corrupt coin, delivering an eye-opening account of an industry shamelessly gaslighting customers, employees, investors, and government regulators in pursuit of profits over principles. Encyclopedic in scope yet intimate in appeal, Etter's timely expos� uncovers the Machiavellian intrigue, greed, and arrogance at the core of one of America's most lethal industries.

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Starred review from May 15, 2021
How the electronic cigarette industry emerged, evolved, and imploded beneath the weight of controversy and grievous misguidance. In this comprehensive scrutiny of the vaping craze and the business behind it, Bloomberg News investigative reporter Etter focuses on two major contributors. Faced with declining adult consumption metrics throughout the 1990s, cigarette titan Altria (previously known as Philip Morris Companies Inc.) and its former upper-level executive Howard Willard III, a tobacco-industry lifer, were desperate for a comeback. Etter seamlessly infuses this story with that of tech wunderkinds and ex-smokers James Monsees and Adam Bowen, who strived to develop a nicotine delivery prototype in 2006, positioned as a beneficial "public health contribution" and an alternative to more harmfully combustive tobacco products. The author diligently chronicles the numerous redesigns of their nicotine liquid vaporizing invention, the Juul, as well as the dogged attention from tobacco executives, whom Etter categorizes as "not unlike spies" as they grew gluttonous for opportunities to collaborate or create their own version of the vape pen. Despite "gung-ho dealmaker" Willard's former contradictory affiliations with smoking cessation programs, he forged ahead, sacrificed public safety, and became a "Juulionaire" with many others. As the interests of big tobacco and Silicon Valley came together, the e-cigarette wars declared Juul the victor, though the product became mired in corruption regarding the maximization of nicotine's psychoactive effects and deceptive advertising of candied flavor variations targeting youth on social media. The backlash from public safety watchdogs was brutal, and as consumer trust faltered, an onslaught of personal injury lawsuits sealed the product's fate. Etter illuminates the crucial missteps that can occur when greed and poor leadership obscure the vision of an enterprising product. Armed with an immense body of research and insider interview material, the author digs deep into the controversial industry to reveal the avarice, scandal, corporate egotism, and rampant "political knife fights." Pair this with Jamie Ducharme's Big Vape to get the entire sordid story in meticulous detail. Riveting journalism that probes the triple threat of vaping, nicotine addiction, and corporate greed.

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