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INCREASED DOSE OF truth® YOUTH-SMOKING PREVENTION CAMPAIGN CONTINUING IN A TOWN NEAR YOU
9/21/2007
CDC Grant to American Legacy Foundation® Will Underwrite truth® Ads in Cities
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the American Legacy Foundation® announced that it will deliver its successful truth® youth smoking prevention campaign to more youth across the country. After a successful first round of funding, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has renewed its grant with the foundation for a second phase of truth® advertising. Through a three-year, $3.6 million matching grant from the CDC, the foundation will increase its advertising in 41 cities, reaching a broader range of youth, including young people in surrounding smaller communities that typically have less exposure to such campaigns.
"Every day, approximately 4,000 young people try smoking for the first time," said Matt McKenna, MD, MPH, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "Counter-marketing campaigns like truth® are effective in reducing tobacco use and an essential component of evidence-based tobacco prevention and control programs."
Given that 80 percent of smokers start smoking before they turn 18 years old, reaching potential teen smokers is especially important for Legacy. Just last December, the University of Michigan reported in its annual health findings, Monitoring the Future, that the historic decline in daily smoking among younger U.S. teens has ended. This alarming public health news underscores the need for this increased dose of truth®. In addition, recent figures from the Federal Trade Commission show the tobacco industry spends more than 36 million dollars a day on marketing efforts in the U.S. alone – more than the annual budget for the truth® campaign.
“truth® is a proven effective program and a necessity as far as counteracting Big Tobacco’s youth-targeted marketing efforts,” said foundation President and CEO Cheryl G. Healton, Dr. P.H. “Although we can hardly match the tobacco industry’s marketing expenditures, we applaud the CDC for acknowledging truth®’s importance and for recognizing that keeping smokers from starting in the first place is the only way to put a stop to the costly smoking epidemic in our country.”
truth® advertising will increase in 18 states, with outreach focusing on communities that have less exposure to truth® because of low cable television penetration. Many of the states – all part of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between attorneys general and the tobacco industry – also showed high numbers of teens and high youth smoking prevalence rates.
The truth® or Consequences program includes a grant-making component intended to engage the same communities in innovative tobacco-use prevention efforts. The grants will enable community organizations to leverage the enhanced truth® media campaign in their areas by developing local tobacco-use prevention projects that are relevant to 12- to 17-year-old youth and that will engage and promote young people as agents of social change. Grantees will design and implement youth-driven projects focused on reducing youth tobacco use in their local community. Each organization has the flexibility to choose and customize different tobacco use prevention strategies and methods that will work best in their region. This year’s grant application process has closed and the selection process is currently underway.
The award-winning truth® campaign is the only national tobacco-prevention campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign includes national advertising, grassroots outreach through a summer tour, and online and Web-based counter-marketing efforts. This summer, in its 8th year on the road, the summer tour featured truth® “crew members” who traveled in signature orange truth® trucks alongside popular summer music tours like the Vans Warped Tour. The truth® tour made more than 60 stops across 29 states – including many states that will benefit from further CDC funding.
Research published in the March 2005 edition of the American Journal of Public Health credited the truth® campaign with 22 percent of the decline in youth smoking in the campaign’s first two years (2000-2002). New research shows industry-sponsored anti-smoking campaigns actually can motivate youth to start smoking, not stop.
Research has shown that anti-smoking ads that convey thought-provoking, believable messages and evoke strong reactions, elicit higher recall and increased perception of effectiveness among teens.1,2,3,4 To reach the target demographic of sensation-seeking teens who are most at risk of smoking, ads must be not only memorable, but also be hard-hitting. truth® borrows heavily from actual tobacco industry documents to share the truth at its most basic level, and to educate youth about marketing tactics the industry uses to attract new customers.
CDC funds for grant years 2007 and 2008 are being matched 2.1 to 1 by the American Legacy Foundation and will continue for an additional year (2009) subject to availability of funds. The federal share of the money accounts for 33 percent, or $2.4 million, of the total funds being used for the truth® or Consequences youth prevention project (Grant #5H75DP000610-02). The remaining 67 percent will be the matching, non-federal share provided by the foundation, for approximately $4.9 million.
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[1] Biener L, Ji M, et al. “The impact of emotional tone, message, and broadcast parameters in youth anti-smoking advertisements.” Journal of Health Communication, 2004; 9(3): 259–274.
[2] Siegel M, Biener L. “The impact of an antismoking media campaign on progression to established smoking: results of a longitudinal youth study.” American Journal of Public Health, 2000; 90(3): 380-386.
[3] Sly DF., Hopkins RS, et al.. Influence of a counteradvertising media campaign on initiation of smoking: the Florida "truth" campaign. American Journal of Public Health, 2001; 91(2):233-238.
[4] Terry-McElrath T, Wakefield M, et al. “The effect of antismoking advertisement executional characteristics on youth comprehension, appraisal, recall, and engagement.” Journal of Health Communication, 2005; 10:127-143.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.
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Contact: Julie Cartwright, (202) 454-5596, jcartwright@americanlegacy.org