The Devil's Playbook

Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of a New Generation

By: Lauren Etter

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

“Juul’s rise and fall teaches us something about greed, capitalism, policy failure and a particular cycle in American business that seems destined to repeat itself. . . . Deeply reported and illuminating.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

Big Tobacco meets Silicon Valley in this gripping exposé of what happened when two of the most notorious industries collided—and the vaping epidemic was born.

“The best business book I’ve read since Bad Blood.”—Jonathan Eig, bestselling author of Ali: A Life

Howard Willard lusted after Juul. As the CEO of the parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris, he believed the e-cigarette had all the addictive upside of the original without the same apparent health risks and bad press. Meanwhile, Adam Bowen and James Monsees began working on a device meant to destroy Big Tobacco but ended up baking the cigarette industry’s DNA into their invention. Juul’s e-cigarette was so effective that it put the company on a collision course with Philip Morris, sparking one of the most explosive public health crises in recent memory.

Award-winning journalist Lauren Etter tells a riveting story of greed and deception in one of the biggest botched deals in business history. Willard was desperate to acquire Juul, even as his team sounded alarms about the startup’s reliance on underage customers. Ultimately, Juul’s executives negotiated a deal that let them pocket the lion’s share of Philip Morris’s $12.8 billion investment while government regulators and furious parents mounted a campaign to hold the company’s feet to the fire.

The Devil’s Playbook is the inside story of how Juul’s embodiment of Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” ethos wrought havoc on American health, how a beleaguered tobacco company was seduced by the promise of a new generation of addicted customers, and how Juul’s founders, board members, and employees walked away with a windfall.

©2021 Lauren Etter (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Deeply reported and illuminating. [The] rich narrative . . . of Juul’s rise and fall teaches us something about greed, capitalism, policy failure and a particular cycle in American business that seems destined to repeat itself.”—New York Times Book Review

“The deeply reported, wonderfully written story of how Juul fell from grace, taking its tobacco-giant investor, Altria, with it. Encompassing raging ambition, desperation, brutal politics, and the perils of Silicon Valley’s gospel of disruption, The Devil’s Playbook is a must-read.”—Bethany McLean, New York Times bestselling co-author of All the Devils are Here and The Smartest Guys in the Room

“Dropping readers directly into the smoke-filled back rooms of the tobacco industry and the sleek offices of Silicon Valley, Lauren Etter delivers gritty reporting and graceful storytelling to reveal how their doomed collision hooked the next generation on Juul. The Devil’s Playbook is as addictive as its subject.”—Jonathan Allen, bestselling co-author of Shattered and Lucky

Not Just Interesting, but Thrilling

An important history that reads like an exciting novel, I'm glad this book has book put out into the world. Well written and well performed.

Amazing story!

Wow, what a read. Thank you for writing this. So impressed with your comprehensive product!

An excellent book

Well researched and documented, and a great story to boot. A sobering reminder of the tobacco wars of the 1990s and early 2000s, and what those wars revealed about just how bad these companies were. And how Juul repeated the worst of big tobacco’s sins, the intentional targeting of teens to hook them on nicotine. Thank you Lauren Etter for writing this book. Hopefully it will be read by the younger generation. It would be a great book for a corporate ethics class, if such classes exist.

Keeps you listening!

Story keeps you listening. Sure makes you think about corporate America. Money above everything else.