EXCLUSIVE: Prime Zynister Poilievre's winning bet on pouches

How 'Lip Pillows' Nearly Toppled the Liberals

When the Conservative Party of Canada launched its final week ad blitz, few expected that the biggest viral hit wouldn’t be about the carbon tax, or crime, or even housing.

It was nicotine pouches.

Specifically, it was Zyn, and the Conservative campaign’s promise to “free” them from the patchwork of Liberal restrictions that had made the popular tobacco replacement option impossible to buy legally in Canada.

The slogan was simple: Free the Zyn. And according to Paul Taillon, the Conservative Party's digital director, it worked — fast.

“I think 3 reasons come to mind,” said Taillon, who served as the campaign’s senior digital strategist. “Our creative was fresh and compelling, and a perfect match for the younger audience. Some of the rave-esque music and effects grabbed the attention of Gen-Z and even younger millennials very quickly.”

It wasn’t just colours and flashing lights.

“The message of what we would do if elected was super clear. No ambiguity or cloudiness of the promise. You vote for us? You get to buy Zyns where you want.”

“It was a complete solution to the problem that Liberals had been inflicting on people who buy Zyns, who had been told by their nanny government that they couldn’t buy them here or there, for no particular or logical reason at all.”

Taillon confirmed that by the usual metrics — views, impressions, shares, and especially the speed at which those numbers climbed — the “Free the Zyn” campaign was a runaway success.

“Some of that [was] possibly attributable to the fact that interest was hyped around the week before election day, but it was clear people we targeted with the message responded positively.”

The policy itself was straightforward: scrap the nonsensical bans and let Canadians legally buy the nicotine products that are already widely available in Europe and the United States. For years, pouches like Zyn had existed in a grey area — technically unapproved, functionally unavailable, but widely purchased on the grey market — due to a confusing patchwork of Health Canada restrictions.

The result was a market ripe for online resellers, and underground trades — especially among young men who see pouches as a cleaner, safer alternative to smoking or vaping.

The Conservative campaign spotted the frustration, wrapped it in a clear cut campaign promise, and turned it loose on social media. The message: vote Conservative, and the government won’t just get out of your face, it will get out of your lip.

At the same time, international attention towards tobacco harm reduction is growing. In June, just weeks after Canada’s election, the Global Forum on Nicotine gathered hundreds of researchers, public health advocates, and policy experts in Warsaw to discuss nicotine harm reduction. Among the top issues: nicotine pouches.

Multiple panels explored how products like Zyn could replace smoking altogether — if governments would just get out of the way.

That was the point of “Free the Zyn”: a clear promise, delivered to a precise audience, on a tangible issue. And it landed like a lightning strike.

The establishment press mostly ignored the campaign. But Taillon’s numbers don’t lie, and neither do the comment sections.

In a campaign where every party had something to say about cost of living and housing, the most shareable Conservative message was about something surprisingly small — but deeply personal.

Not everyone uses nicotine pouches.

But the ones who do? They vote. And they’ve made one thing crystal clear:

There’s no place for the state in the lips of the nation.