Beyond the smoke screen: A temporal power analysis of JUUL Labs's corporate political activities

E-cigarette companies increasingly employ sophisticated corporate political activities (CPAs) that mirror the historical strategies of the traditional tobacco industry. This study examines the power dynamics within JUUL Labs's CPAs by applying the Temporal Three-Dimensional Power Framework to analyze both the dimensions of power and their temporal evolution. Critical Discourse Study approaches were used to analyze 82 corporate internal documents produced between 2017 and 2020 and to identify how power operates within these activities. We mapped JUUL Labs's CPAs to five strategies-displacing public health, managing reputations, influencing policy-making, manufacturing support, and shaping evidence-and performed a power analysis, leveraging three dimensions of power: visible power through lobbying and funding; hidden power via agenda-setting by mobilizing "Thought Leaders" (influencers in different areas who have expressed specific views or attitudes to the e-cigarette industry); and invisible power through ideological mobilization. We further demonstrate how these power dimensions accumulate, transform, and reconstruct over time to extend corporate influence. This research underscores the necessity of a power framework to address the underlying dynamics used by unhealthy commodity industries and their evolution over time, showing that effective public health interventions require unpacking these cumulative layers of influence to develop effective counter-strategies.