NYT Magazine - March 22 2020

8 3.22.

Above and opening page: Screen grabs from YouTube

Screenland

Photo illustration by Mike McQuade

its guitar. The backdrop behind it shuff les
through a series of apocalyptic images:
a swirling orange inferno, a black-and-
white mushroom cloud, a bunch of explo-
sions. An oil refi nery belches smoke as
the monster holds a microphone close to
his face: ‘‘Tons of corrupt fi lth we keep
tossin’,’’ it belts out, ‘‘sending Earth to hell
in a pod-shaped coffi n.’’
The two young men can’t contain their
laughter. What they’re joyfully scrutiniz-
ing is a public-service announcement by
Truth, an anti-nicotine initiative known
for making didactic pleas aimed at teen-
agers. (Its approach here is an appeal
to youth environmentalism: Pollutants
from discarded e-cigarette pods, they’re

suggesting, are not an ideal addition to the

planet.) The guys making fun of this are,

naturally, of a diff erent persuasion. One

works for DashVapes, which describes

itself as ‘‘Canada’s leading retailer and

distributor of authentic gear and world

class e-juice.’’ (The other is a friend.) The

company produces a wide variety of You-

Tube clips — a handful of them now aimed

at correcting what they, and other vapers,

see as misinformation and paranoia com-

ing out of the United States.

During the past year, as the so-called

vaping epidemic burst into the public eye,

two lines of concern peaked at the same

moment: an outbreak of vaping-related

illnesses and deaths, and accusations that

Juul Labs targeted youth with its adver-

tising. (Public health offi cials eventually

connected the illnesses with tainted and

illicit THC products; Juul now faces inves-

tigations and lawsuits, though it denies

any wrongdoing.) Both narratives were

surely helpful to organizations like Truth

and the Michael Bloomberg-funded Cam-

paign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which are

focused on abstinence: They essentially

consider vapes to be cigarettes in mod-

ern form, allowing big tobacco to hook a

new generation on nicotine just as youth

smoking rates hit an all-time low.

But as those news stories received

more attention — and as political fi gures

pushed for knee-jerk regulatory fixes

Adult vapers are

often passionate

evangelists

for their hobby;

they see it,

after all,

as genuinely

lifesaving.