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What evidence do you/NY Times have that Zyn was paying 17 year olds to market on social media? Call me skeptical

conradev 3y ago
There doesn’t need to be any link between Zyn and the viral social marketing for it to be a serious problem in need of fixing It’s actually harder to solve the more decentralized it is: if any creator can make money off of a viral video and nicotine vapes go viral, that’s just tough At the end of the day, teenagers shouldn’t see videos promoting Zyn every day, but there is money to be made in doing it, even from the engagement alone.
- hammock 3y ago
  That’s an interesting argument. Took me two reads to get it but you might have won me over
  - conradev 3y ago
    I’m happy to hear it! I only reframed the problem, though, and didn’t really propose a solution, which is often the part that people disagree with The centralized player with the most control over this is the viral platforms themselves. If they’re smart, they’re working on a self-regulating solution to this problem before lawmakers get around to it. Things like tagging videos about nicotine and demonetizing them or tweaking the algorithm to make sure only those of legal age can see them. Alcohol and nicotine advertising is already heavily regulated on TV, where targeting is impossible and minors watch it
theptip 3y ago
Juul was found do be doing exactly this, so your priors should now be that a spike in child usage of nicotine products is plausibly due to targeted advertising.
- hammock 3y ago
  My next door neighbor murdered his wife and went to jail. Should my wife be worried about me?
  - theptip 3y ago
    More worried than the counterfactual world where there is no evidence of husbands murdering wives at elevated rates vs. the base population risk? Of course. But the differences in base rates make this a spurious analogy. A substantial portion of vape companies (by market cap) engaged in direct marketing to minors, we are not talking about unlikely scenarios such as murder.

There doesn’t need to be any link between Zyn and the viral social marketing for it to be a serious problem in need of fixing It’s actually harder to solve the more decentralized it is: if any creator can make money off of a viral video and nicotine vapes go viral, that’s just tough At the end of the day, teenagers shouldn’t see videos promoting Zyn every day, but there is money to be made in doing it, even from the engagement alone.

hammock 3y ago
That’s an interesting argument. Took me two reads to get it but you might have won me over
- conradev 3y ago
  I’m happy to hear it! I only reframed the problem, though, and didn’t really propose a solution, which is often the part that people disagree with The centralized player with the most control over this is the viral platforms themselves. If they’re smart, they’re working on a self-regulating solution to this problem before lawmakers get around to it. Things like tagging videos about nicotine and demonetizing them or tweaking the algorithm to make sure only those of legal age can see them. Alcohol and nicotine advertising is already heavily regulated on TV, where targeting is impossible and minors watch it

theptip 3y ago

Juul was found do be doing exactly this, so your priors should now be that a spike in child usage of nicotine products is plausibly due to targeted advertising.

hammock 3y ago
My next door neighbor murdered his wife and went to jail. Should my wife be worried about me?
- theptip 3y ago
  More worried than the counterfactual world where there is no evidence of husbands murdering wives at elevated rates vs. the base population risk? Of course. But the differences in base rates make this a spurious analogy. A substantial portion of vape companies (by market cap) engaged in direct marketing to minors, we are not talking about unlikely scenarios such as murder.