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truth® and The Rapides Foundation Partner In Tobacco Prevention
8/25/2008
Bring Life-Saving Advertising to Central Louisiana
WASHINGTON, DC, and ALEXANDRIA, LA – truth®, the nation’s largest smoking prevention campaign for youth, will extend its advertising campaign to nine parishes in Central Louisiana as part of a partnership with The Rapides Foundation.
The Rapides Foundation is a philanthropic organization that develops initiatives and provides grants to organizations that share the Foundation’s mission to improve the health status of Central Louisiana.
Launched in February 2000, the American Legacy Foundation®’s truth® campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction, and the health effects and social consequences of smoking - allowing teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products. It is designed to engage teens by exposing Big Tobacco’s marketing and manufacturing practices, as well as highlighting the toll of tobacco in relevant and innovative ways.
“Research shows that more than 17 percent of sixth through eighth graders in Louisiana smoke cigarettes, a rate significantly higher than the national average,” said Cheryl G. Healton, Dr. P.H., president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, which provides funding and strategic direction for the truth® campaign. “Having the opportunity to further reach areas of the country with high smoking rates is vital to our mission of building a world where young people reject tobacco. Partnerships with effective, community-based organizations like The Rapides Foundation allow us to increase our reach in smaller-media markets where the incidence of smoking is generally very high.”
Two television and two radio advertisements from the current “Sunny Side of truth®” campaign will be seen and heard in Central Louisiana starting at the end of August and running through December 2008. The nine parishes served by The Rapides Foundation are Allen, Avoyelles, Catahoula, Grant, LaSalle, Natchitoches, Rapides, Vernon and Winn.
“We know truth® ads are extremely powerful and proven effective on the national scale to keep teens from smoking,” said Joe Rosier, president and CEO of The Rapides Foundation. “We are very happy to have them as an ally in keeping the youth of Central Louisiana from starting to smoke.”
In Central Louisiana, the ads will run on television and radio stations.
The ads being shown are from the latest truth® advertising campaign, called the “Sunny Side of truth.®” Launched in January 2008, the campaign aims to shine a light on some of the activities of Big Tobacco and the health consequences of tobacco use by satirically pointing out some of the “hidden positives” associated with tobacco. The television ads unfold in a way reminiscent of previous truth® ads – with young people on the streets doing real truth® stunts like gathering in front of tobacco industry headquarters buildings. But then the spots continue in a saccharin sweet, yet super-sarcastic fashion. When the young people consider a tobacco fact and the “sunny side” of Big Tobacco, a live singing-and-dancing musical number breaks out. Despite the musical diversion, the ads remain gritty, real, and true to the campaign, delivering a strong anti-tobacco message or illuminating facts about tobacco.
The two radio spots, called “Timeless Classics” and “Lullaby” also satirically look at the “Sunny Side” of similar facts, like the fact that if one out of every three smokers dies from a tobacco-related illness, that means that two smokers live!
In reality, there is no sunny side to the issue of tobacco use in America; more than 400,000 Americans die each year from tobacco-related diseases, and the tobacco industry continues to use questionable practices in promoting and marketing its products.
The partnership with the Rapides Foundation is another way truth® is trying to reach teens across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently renewed a three-year, $3.6 million matching grant that will allow for higher penetration of truth® television ads in 41 cities in 18 states. The grant allows for truth® ads to penetrate rural markets that have high smoking rates among teens, yet limited exposure to the highly successful youth anti-smoking campaign.
DETAILS OF OTHER CURRENT truth® PROGRAMS:
Advertising Campaign:
ReMix:
Songs from the current truth® advertising campaign will be getting a new twist this summer when nine innovative and well-known DJs and bands put new spins on the songs by re-mixing them in styles from house and hip-hop to electro. As part of the truth® “ReMix” project, DJs and bands such as Cobra Starship, Diplo, Kaskade, Mix Master Mike and more will re-mix songs from the “Sunny Side of truth®” - the current advertising campaign from the nation’s largest youth smoking prevention campaign. The ReMix music tracks will then be packaged as a special CD compilation and available for download online as part of a comprehensive effort to reach more of the teen audience through technology and alternative media & entertainment outlets already popular with teens. For more information, visit www.thetruth.com/ReMix.
truth® tour:
truth® recently wrapped up its 9th annual nationwide summer tour. On tour, truth® “crew members” interacted with local youth in more than 30 cities to spread information about the addictiveness of tobacco products, the adverse health effects of tobacco use, and the social consequences of smoking. The dedicated young adults who make up the truth® crews for the tour connect with more than 700,000 teens at popular summer events every year. For more information, visit www.thetruth.com/tour.
BACKGROUND ON THE truth® CAMPAIGN
truth®, launched in February 2000, is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction, and the health effects and social consequences of smoking. truth®, allows teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products. The campaign was created by the American Legacy Foundation, which was founded as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry, 46 states and five U.S. territories. Payments to the American Legacy Foundation are made on behalf of the settling states.
In February 2005 the American Legacy Foundation released the results of an evaluation of the national truth® campaign that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during the first two years of the campaign (2000-2002) is directly attributable to truth®. This equates to 300,000 fewer youth smokers in 2002 as a result of the campaign.
The American Legacy Foundation, which provides strategic direction and funding for the truth® campaign, received in 2003 what is likely its final payment to the National Public Education Fund established by the Master Settlement Agreement. Despite its success, the truth® campaign now faces an unprecedented funding challenge.
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Contact: Patricia McLaughlin, 202-454-5560, pmclaughlin@americanlegacy.org