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Former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson is launching his own nicotine pouch brand after claiming Zyn is run by “humorless, left-wing drones.”
Carlson plans to launch the brand, Alp, in November, he told The Wall Street Journal. This comes after he made a strange comment about Zyn back in October – and the company fired back.
“The truth is, Zyn is a powerful work enhancer, and also a male enhancer, if you know what I mean,” Carlson said last October on the This Past Weekend politics podcast hosted by right-wing social media personality Theo Von.
Zyn pouches are small, nicotine-filled pouches that a user places between their gum and their upper lip. Zyn pouches also differ from snus — another oral nicotine product — because they contain nicotine powder, rather than shredded tobacco leaf.
Carlson’s team later pitched a partnership with Zyn, which their owner Philip Morris International shot down, the WSJ reports.
“While we understand that these may be Mr. Carlson’s views, or made in jest, these statements lack a scientific foundation,” the company said in response. “Given Mr. Carlson’s popularity and reach, these statements could promote a misunderstanding and misuse of our products.”
Carlson told the WSJ the company’s response inspired him to start the new brand.
“Of course I wasn’t making a medical claim about their product. I was just joking,” he told the outlet on Wednesday. “So I thought: ‘I’m going to launch my own product that’s not controlled by, you know, humorless, left-wing drones.’”
A ZYN spokesperson responded to his comments.
“It’s frustrating that Mr. Carlson wants to turn ZYN into a political football to promote his own business venture,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “ZYN enjoys bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., and around the country because it provides adults who smoke, Republicans and Democrats alike, a better alternative to combustible cigarettes.”
Last week, the former Fox News host also claimed Zyn donates to Kamala Harris – and commented that men should not use it.
“I’m embarrassed to say it, it’s made by a huge company, huge donors to Kamala Harris, I’m not gonna use that brand anymore,” Carlson said in an interview with the apparel company Old Row on Tuesday. “I mean I think it’s fine ... for like your girlfriend or whatever, but I don’t think men should use that brand. It starts with a ‘Z.’”
Philip Morris International and its subsidiaries do not donate to presidential candidates, according to the company’s spokesperson.
However, its subsidiary and Zyn’s parent company Swedish Match North America operates a political action committee that has spent $42,500 on Republicans and $18,000 on Democrats during this election cycle, Daily Dot reports.
