The Devil’s Playbook: Big Tobacco, Juul, and the Addiction of a New Generation

　　當菸草巨頭與矽谷新創公司相遇……
　　深入挖掘電子菸與尼古丁成癮、企業之貪婪和失能領導所引發的健康危機，一部不容錯過的震撼報導！
 
　　身為菸草巨頭菲莫國際(Philip Morris)母公司奧馳亞集團的CEO，以及長期因尼古丁產品，被迫與監管機構交手的業內老手，霍華德．威拉德(Howard Willard)越來越著迷於得到他眼中能拯救公司的救星──電子菸。這個產品據信擁有香菸的一切優點，卻沒有香菸的健康風險和不良印象。此時在矽谷，亞當．鮑恩(Adam Bowen)和詹姆斯．蒙西斯(James Monsees)，積極投入開發一種新型裝置，意圖造福因菸癮而擔憂健康受損的人們。他們所生產的Juul電子菸廣受歡迎、幾乎主導了整個市場，引起菲莫國際等菸草公司的注意和興趣，一時之間公司估值飆升，成為業界矚目焦點，然而其產品隨後卻引爆了近年來最嚴重的健康危機之一。
 
　　彭博社記者蘿倫．埃特(Lauren Etter)深入調查，記錄下這起商業史上最糟交易中的貪婪與詐欺：威拉德執意大舉投資Juul，不顧團隊針對Juul疑經營未成年客群一事提出警告，而當監管機構和憤怒的父母們發起行動，意圖對Juul施壓，Juul的管理階層又是如何談成一筆慷慨大方的交易，取得菲莫國際大部分的投資。
 
　　本書描繪了Juul對矽谷「快速行動、打破成規」信條的身體力行，如何造成美國公共衛生的災難，而一家走投無路的菸草公司，又是如何被「開發年輕顧客」這一承諾所引誘。他們未能預料到吸電子菸所引起的數起死亡事件，將使整個社會陷入恐慌、讓Juul的市值大跌，甚至終結了威拉德的事業發展。其對財富的慾念和追求，付出了數條生命代價，更留下染上癮頭、健康飽受摧殘的年輕世代，然而Juul的創辦人、董事會成員和員工，卻得以口袋滿滿地一走了之。(文/博客來編譯)
 
　　「本書是對於菲莫國際試圖擺脫其飽受爭議的核心業務、全力投入Juul的災難性嘗試，一部讓人身歷其境的精彩作品……報導仔細嚴謹、情節緊張刺激。」──布萊利．霍普，《鯨吞億萬》作者
 
　　「繼《惡血》之後，本書是我讀過最棒的商業書。」──喬納森．艾格，《Ali: A Life》作者

＂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.

Lauren Etter is an award-winning investigative reporter at Bloomberg News, where she writes in-depth corporate features for Bloomberg Businessweek. Previously she was a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and she has written for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. She holds master’s degrees in journalism and in law from Northwestern University. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.