Electronic Cigarette Blog

Blu Cigs a recently acquired by tobacco giant Lorillard, has deep roots in the porn industry with AEBN!

We have followed the growth of BLU Cigs as a top electronic cigarette brand, and seen their meteoric rise in online sales, and then their significant drop-off as they shifted focus to retail distribution.  BLU Cigs has been featured on various television commercials and programs, as well as music videos.  With such focus on brand awareness and positioning BLU Cigs in the face of consumers, it’s no surprise that “Big Tobacco” giant Lorillard took notice.

What would convince Lorillard to make such a move with BLU Cigs, as opposed to some of the other top electronic cigarette brands on the market?  Obviously, location could be a factor – BLU Cigs is based in Charlotte, NC, right in the heart of tobacco country, and Lorillard is based in nearby Greensboro, NC.  Certainly, a tobacco giant such as Lorillard, known for making popular cigarette brands such as Newport, Kent, True, Maverick, and Old Gold, has its reasons. According to Lorillard CEO Murray Kessler, the $135M cash deal is viewed “more as a meaningful R & D investment to unlock a potentially large, long-term growth opportunity.”

Sounds like a match made in tobacco heaven…  or is there more to this affair than meets the eye?

We had heard rumors that BLU Cigs shares corporate offices with a major adult industry (porn) company, so our team decided to look into the matter further.  Preliminary research revealed some interesting discoveries about BLU Cigs and their association with adult entertainment powerhouse, AEBN (thanks, Google!).  As it turns out, BLU Cigs founder, president, and CEO Jason Healy has been directly involved in the adult entertainment industry, and the BLU Cigs brand has had close ties with porn throughout its history.

Once we stumbled across this link between these two companies, we decided to dig deeper, and discovered a very detailed thread on E-Cigarette-Forum, or “ECF” as it is commonly referred, which is purportedly “the world’s largest e-cigarette forum.” This article essentially performed the basic legwork establishing the connection between BLU Cigs and AEBN through street addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses listed on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and through domain name registries.

According to an article published in AVN- Blu Cigs Enters Adult Arena Through AEBN (Adult Video News) on July 13, 2009:

“Working with AEBN to access adult was a no-brainer for Healy, who has “known the AEBN guys a long time.” So when the Blu Cigs concept came together, it was a natural fit to partner with them in the adult arena.”

But just how deep is the connection between BLU Cigs, Jason Healy, and AEBN?

According to an article published on XBiz – AEBN releases Blu Electronic Cigarettes (The Adult Industry Source for Business News and Information) dated May 14, 2009, “AEBN has indeed teamed up with BLU Cigs, but Mr. Healy claims that ‘Blu and AEBN work closely together but are two separate entities.’”

Now, let’s take a look Jason Healy, the current president of BLU Cigs.  Still not convinced he’s involved in porn?  Here is an article written directly by Jason on June 12, 2007:

Gold Coast Girls Launches in U.S.

By jason (at) goldcoastgirls (dot) com – June 12, 2007

GOLD COAST, Australia – Australian reality site The Gold Coast Girls has arrived in the U.S. The concept was originally designed for delivery via mobile phones but now is available as a reality website with additional interactive features. GoldCoastGirls.com follows the uncensored adventures of party girls from Australia’s beach-side city, the Gold Coast. The product is completely unscripted and subscribers get to see all the action through pictures and videos, plus they can interact with the girls through the blog. “We are very excited to make Gold Coast Girls available to the rest of the world and we are hoping the unique reality aspect of the site, that has seen it succeed in Australia, will translate in other markets,” Jason Healy, creator of Gold Coast Girls, said. For more information or to be become and exclusive partner, email jason (at) goldcoastgirls (dot) com.

Jason Healy, President and CEO of BLU Cigs, can been seen here promoting BLU Cigs on The Balancing Act(Lifetime Television Network).

Additionally, BLU Cigs president Jason Healy will neither confirm nor deny the “suspicious” appearance of an electronic cigarette featured in a pornographic sex scandal tape involving Eric Dane / Rebecca Gayheart as being a BLU Cigs product.

According to a search on WhoIs Domain Name Registry, the aforementioned blucigs.com and aebn.net websites were previously registered as follows:

BLEC LLC, P.O. 12711, Charlotte, NC 28220-2711, and

AEBN, 500 Archdale Dr, Charlotte, NC 28217

with the same Administrative Contact and Technical Contact: steve1k99 (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Overall, the strategic acquisition of BLU Cigs by tobacco manufacturing powerhouse Lorillard bodes well for the future of the electronic cigarette industry.  While our team is surprised that Lorillard opted for BLU Cigs, we look forward to seeing what the future holds for other e-cigarette manufacturers.  Perhaps they should have done their homework a bit more about BLU Cigs and their close ties to the porn industry.  Nevertheless, consumers have clearly established that there is a demand for electronic cigarettes on the market today, and e-cig manufacturers continue to flourish as more people look to alternatives to traditional cigarettes.

We look forward to seeing what other ecig companies are in talks with “Big Tobacco.”  Obviously choices for future acquisition by other major U.S. tobacco manufacturers are NJOY, with an established retail presence, and  V2Cigs, the industry’s leader in online retail sales worldwide.  So the question remains: Will “Big Tobacco” step in and dominate the electronic cigarette market?