The dangers of Big Tobacco’s faux-pharmaceutical rebrand
Nicotine products like Zyn are becoming a cornerstone of Big Tobacco’s profits and skyrocketing in popularity – particularly among young people. Despite California’s progress in drastically reducing smoking, the state is no exception to this trend, with nicotine pouch use nearly doubling in the past year among adolescents.1 Tobacco companies are making this shift towards nicotine products because they have seen the writing on the wall: Thanks to a combination of public health policy, shifting public attitudes around the dangers of smoking, and declining cigarette sales and smoking rates, the tobacco industry’s profits have been in decline for years. Soon, cigarette manufacturing will become unprofitable in the United States.2 Tobacco executives’ public response to this business crisis is to tell investors that nicotine products will not only fill the hole in the market left by cigarettes, but also allow them to profit off of pretending to solve the public health crisis that they created.3
“My research on previously-sealed [tobacco] industry documents shows that... they believed they would need to adopt the public image of a 'socially responsible' company to continue maximizing their profits.”
How did Big Tobacco marketing deceive the public?
To revamp their image, Big Tobacco relies on two deceptive moves. First, they seek to decouple tobacco from nicotine – creating a false perception that non-tobacco nicotine products are less harmful.5 Next, they build on this lie to get around tobacco regulations with a host of “faux pharmaceutical” products – products they present to regulators as medical-grade tools to assist smokers wean off and eventually quit – yet as evidenced by the candy flavors and party imagery in their advertising, market to youth and young adults.67
Big Tobacco has shifted gears, leading the public to believe that the “impurities” in tobacco – tar and other additives – were the real problem all along, conveniently ignoring the research that nicotine itself is a poison and intrinsically harmful.8 Nicotine contributes significantly to heart disease, which causes more deaths in smokers than lung cancer.910 Current vaping prevalence among California young adults (18-25 years old) is 12.1 percent, the highest among any age group.11 Crucially, these young adults were among the cohort that were middle and high school students during the height of the youth vaping epidemic, further signaling that the goal of these products is to initiate new users – not help current users quit.12
Nicotine is extraordinarily addictive and disease causing even when decoupled from combustible tobacco products.
The truth is: There is no safe commercial nicotine product
Nicotine is extraordinarily addictive and disease causing even when decoupled from combustible tobacco products.13 It can increase blood pressure and increase risk of a heart attack.8 It can amplify feelings of anxiety, depression, mood swings, and irritability.14 Taken in excess, it can induce vomiting, diarrhea, extreme fatigue, tremors, and increased blood pressure.15 And perhaps worst of all, it can permanently change the developing brain, priming it for addiction to substances and compulsions of all kinds.8
There are therapeutic tools that are certified by the FDA to help nicotine-addicted people quit, like nicotine patches and prescription medications. These products are subject to a rigorous safety approval process, are made to be weaned off of, and are not manufactured with the sole purpose of making indefinite profits.16 By marketing vapes and nicotine pouches as medicines, Big Tobacco deliberately confuses the people who want to quit and introduces dangerous products to kids who would have never used any tobacco product in the first place.
Big Tobacco has hidden the fact that they created the twin epidemics of smoking and youth vaping, and make money on both sides of a cycle of addiction and suffering. While more research on the long-term health impacts of newer products like nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products will certainly give us more data on which to act, one thing is clear: These untested products are not meant to put the companies that sell them out of business. Instead of solving the tobacco epidemic, they aim to extend it by other means.
If you or your loved one is already struggling with nicotine addiction, California offers free, personalized tools to help nicotine users quit for good. Visit kickitca.org to learn more.
Dr. Hendlin is an Assistant Professor of the Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative and the Erasmus School of Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and has worked in tobacco control for two decades, principally at the University of California, San Francisco.
- Clodfelter, R., Dutra, L. M., Bradfield, B., Russell, S., Levine, B., & von Jaglinsky, A. (2023). Annual results report for the California Youth Tobacco Survey 2023. RTI International
- Givel M. Campaign to counter a deteriorating consumer market: Philip Morris's project sunrise. Public Health 2013; 127:134–42
- PMI aims to become a majority smoke-free business by 2025. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://www.pmi.com/our-progress/www.pmi.com/our-progress/pmi-aims-to-become-a-majority-smoke-free-business-by-2025
- Hendlin YH, Han EL, Ling PM. Pharmaceuticalisation as the tobacco industry’s endgame. BMJ Global Health. 2024;9(2):e013866. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2023-013866
- Dorotheo, E. U., Arora, M., Banerjee, A., Bianco, E., Cheah, N. P., Dalmau, R., ... & Wang, Y. (2024). Nicotine and Cardiovascular Health: When Poison is Addictive–a WHF Policy Brief. Global Heart, 19(1), 14
- Young e-cigarette users report widespread use of flavor blends and “concept” flavors like Iced Mango, Blue Dream, and OMG. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/emerging-tobacco-products/young-e-cigarette-users-report-widespread-use-flavor
- Marsh S. Instagram influencers advertising nicotine products to young people, charity warns. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jun/12/instagram-influencers-advertising-nicotine-products-to-young-people-charity-warns. June 12, 2023. Accessed March 11, 2025
- How smoking and nicotine damage your body. www.heart.org. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking-tobacco/how-smoking-and-nicotine-damage-your-body
- Carll AP, Arab C, Salatini R, et al. E-cigarettes and their lone constituents induce cardiac arrhythmia and conduction defects in mice. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):6088. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33203-1
- Study: Smokers are more likely to die from heart disease than lung cancer | NHLBI, NIH. November 17, 2021. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2021/study-smokers-are-more-likely-die-heart-disease-lung-cancer
- Tobacco-Related Disparity Indicators Dashboard. Accessed May 1, 2024. https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DCDIC/CTCB/Pages/Tobacco-Related-Disparity-Indicators-Dashboard.aspx
- Besaratinia A, Tommasi S. Vaping epidemic: challenges and opportunities. Cancer Causes Control. 2020;31(7):663-667. doi:10.1007/s10552-020-01307-y
- Mishra A, Chaturvedi P, Datta S, Sinukumar S, Joshi P, Garg A. Harmful effects of nicotine. Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol. 2015;36(1):24-31. doi:10.4103/0971-5851.151771
- CDC. E-cigarette use among youth. Smoking and Tobacco Use. October 17, 2024. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/e-cigarettes/youth.html
- American Lung Association. What it means to be nic-sick. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://www.lung.org/blog/nic-sick
- Premarket tobacco product applications. FDA. March 27, 2024. Accessed March 11, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/market-and-distribute-tobacco-product/premarket-tobacco-product-applications
Explore the tobacco industry's damage
