By analyzing common themes across the Instagram images, the researchers found that over 70% contained e-juices and devices, which contain higher nicotine concentrations and are often popular among e-cigarette novices. The analytics data shared by the vaping influencers also showed that many of their followers were underage (13 to 17 years old).
I’m calling BS on this article and their research on vape influencers. They don’t name the influencers that were interviewed and they don’t provide any evidence that any of their followers were underage. They simply say “many of them were underage”
Well here are my Instagram analytics
When you see this could you logically come to the conclusion that “many” of my followers are underage? Or is that number closer to ZERO than anything else. This is nothing more than US being active and getting in the way of #TheRealCost anti-vaping campaign. This is us sticking in their craw so to speak, and them not being able to figure out why.
Additionally they claim that our “contraptions” as Scott Gottlieb calls them use higher levels of nicotine. A little bit of a deep dive into the information would show they could not be more wrong. If i’m putting on my tinfoil had for a minute here. It could be that they are trying to blame the curiosity answer in the NYTS on influencers. What separates an influencer from a consumer advocate? I know the answer, but they don’t and that’s part of the problem #outoftouch
This is us using our numbers positively and fighting misinformation. Keep going, they have been noticing us for a while now and not only don’t realize how passionate we are, but also that were far from giving up.
-Grimm