The e-cigarette Puff Bar, which comes in many flavors and is not subject to the new partial ban on flavored e-cigarettes because it is a disposable device, appears to be capitalizing on the pandemic by marketing to kids in their bedrooms. Advertisements from the company show an image of a bedroom and promote Puff Bar as a “solo break” from “back-to-back zoom calls, parental texts and WFH stress.”
In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi is calling on the agency to immediately remove Puff Bar from the market. Writing that Puff Bar “is quickly becoming the new JUUL,” the Illinois representative highlighted the advertisement and stated that the company “appears to be taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to explicitly—and illegally—sell its products to school children.”
New research from Truth Initiative shows that disposable e-cigarettes have grown in popularity in response to regulatory moves and that Puff Bar is now the most popular disposable e-cigarette among young people. Of the young people using disposable products, nearly half are using Puff Bar (42%).