Click the map above to view the full StoryMap!
The trend in marketing for e-cigarettes in the United States has heavily relied on its “clean” and “modern” design. These marketing techniques have distanced the consumer from the commodity (e-cigarettes). This StoryMap is an attempt at reconciling and complicating this narrative that has been heavily advertised across the web and in e-cigarette stores. StoryMaps are applications enabled by the GIS-company ESRI that allows users to display various maps in a journey and story format. Clicking on the link above, this StoryMap is self-guided and interactive, so it allows you, the user, to further explore the information collected and displayed on this application.
Collecting this information that you will see displayed took around 4 to 5 weeks. Companies like JUUL rarely give insight into their production chain. Finding out where certain components of e-cigarettes were produced was largely based on this article, published on the website Insight Solutions Global. The author, Catherine Zhang, goes into detail on the different components of e-cigarettes, and what various companies produce certain components.
From there, I had to search annual reports and finance-related articles online to decipher the locations of facilities that produce each component. From there, I categorized and plotted each facility that I found to create a supply chain map.
Initially, the StoryMap guides you through the components and supply chain of e-cigarette production. The supply chain lines all point to Shenzhen, China, a city neighboring Hong Kong where 95% of e-cigarettes are assembled. From there, the e-cigarettes journey to the United States, showing the headquarters of the largest sellers of e-cigarettes in the United States. This eventually leads to North Carolina, where tobacco forms a large part of the agricultural industry. Tobacco production in NC in 2018 is portrayed in this map. This is the same tobacco that will likely be used to make the smoke oil consumed through e-cigarettes. Lastly, the StoryMap shows the e-cigarette and tobacco vendors that surround Duke University. The journey does not necessarily end here, since users then consume the product and are producers of waste themselves.
