My dad went viral on TikTok because he quit smoking after 40 years. Read to the end...

Hi. I'm Chris, and this is my dad ☝️

I'm a Doctor of Pharmacy and a former Army combat medic, founder of Betterbrand — and the son of a man you may have come across on TikTok recently.

His handle is @real1jackson. We call him PawPaw. About six months ago, after more than 40 years of smoking, he decided he was done.

He didn't tell anyone. He just stopped.

Then, a few days later, with no real plan, he picked up his phone and made a TikTok. Then another one. Then another.

He started at Day 1. Today he's at Day 190. And the internet won't stop watching.

In his Day 175 video, he laid out his three reasons for quitting...

And then he said this, on camera...

He made another video earlier in the series — much earlier — that I had to watch twice before I could keep working. He simply called it "Apologies to My Children and My Grandchildren."

That's my dad.

Now I want to tell you why this one matters to me.

My dad served in the United States Army before I did. He bought his first pack of cigarettes overseas, in uniform, in Germany. 26 cents.

That pack turned into 40+ years of smoking.

U.S. Army

Germany

Home from service

The '70s

30 years in

I grew up watching it. The cough in the morning. The pack in the truck console. The way the smell got into the upholstery, the curtains, the hugs goodnight. The way he'd step outside on holidays and stand alone in the yard.

I watched him try to quit. More than once. Many more than once.

I watched the work his chest was doing when it shouldn't have had to.

That is, honestly, why I became a pharmacist. I thought the medicine could fix it. I thought there had to be a protocol.

The medicine helped. It helped a lot of people. But for my dad — and for a lot of the people I grew up around who were also lifelong smokers — it wasn't enough on its own.

So in 2019, I started Betterbrand, and the first thing we built was a daily lung-support supplement called BetterLungs.

It's built around mullein leaf — an herb people have leaned on for respiratory comfort since Greek and Roman times — dosed and tested by a pharmacist. We've made BetterLungs in a few different formats over the years: gummies, drops, and a nasal Reset Stick.

For my dad, the daily setup is our Quit Smoking Support Bundle — Mullein + Chlorophyll drops paired with our nasal Reset Sticks. The drops live next to his coffee. A Reset Stick rides in his pocket for when the urge hits.

For my dad, the daily setup is our Quit Smoking Support Bundle — Mullein + Chlorophyll drops paired with our nasal Reset Sticks. The drops live next to his coffee. A Reset Stick rides in his pocket for when the urge hits.

See what PawPaw takes

See what PawPaw takes

Across the whole BetterLungs line, over 836,000 people have ordered one.

But I didn't build it for them. I built it for the man in those old photos. The one who tried, and tried, and tried.

And then, at Day 190, he did it.

He made it to Day 190. He's walking new trails, finding new parks, and breathing without a cloud above him — and honestly, I couldn't be prouder. If you have someone in your life who smokes, or is trying to quit, this is who I built BetterLungs for, now.