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There’s a “Sunny Side” of Fall for truth®
9/18/2008
Online Contest, Messaging Applications, Videos, Podcasts, Cinema Ads, and Video Games Expand Reach of Youth Smoking Campaign
Washington, DC, September 18, 2008 – Throughout the third quarter of 2008, new elements from the truth® youth smoking prevention campaign will roll out online, at the movie theater, on television, and in a video game. The multimedia mix supports truth®’s goal to keep 12-17 year- olds from smoking, by highlighting the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry and health and social consequences of smoking.
The latest truth® 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 reality is that there are no positives to tobacco use.
Each television spot in the Sunny Side campaign features young people who, after considering a tobacco fact and the “sunny side” of Big Tobacco, break out into a live singing and-dancing musical number, accompanied by cartoon images. Despite the musical diversion, the ads all deliver a strong anti-tobacco message or illuminate facts about tobacco. The latest outreach efforts all expand the scope of the Sunny Side campaign.
ReMix CONTEST:
truth® has invited its fans to create their own “re-mixed” versions of songs from the campaign in a contest hosted on the popular music community imeem.com. Teens upload their remix of “Typo” by September 20th, and then other members of imeem vote on their favorites between then and October 10th. The winner will receive Ableton Live 7 Software, a package of premium DJ software, a CD signed by the artist, a truth® shirt and promotion of the winning song on iTunes.
The contest is an extension of an effort from this summer when nine innovative and well-known DJs and bands put new spins on the campaign 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 re-mixed songs from the “Sunny Side of truth®.” The ReMix music tracks were 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. By mid-August 2008 the ReMix songs had been downloaded more than 473 times on thetruth.com.
PODCAST DISTRIBUTION:
The artists involved with the campaign also created video podcasts featured on thetruth.com Web site. These podcasts are now being integrated into television programming on cable channels popular with teens.
- fuel – will show podcasts of Kenny Dope, Mix Master Mike, and Cobra Starship during its show, The Daily Habit, four times per week through the end of the year.
- The N will run two-minute videos of Mix Master Mike, Cobra Starship and Kaskade 259 times per segment.
- VH1 has been showing a one-minute video of DJ Z-Trip since July, which will continue airing through September for a total of 42 airings. ReMix will also be incorporated into the VH1 Hip Hop Honors awards broadcast on October 7.
- G4 integrated ReMix tracks into its programming, starting on August 25.
- During the summer, ReMix and scenes from the truth® summer grassroots tour were featured on the fuse show, Steven’s Untitled Rock Show. truth® has a long relationship with fuse, having been a prominent part of its summer programming for the last three years.
WEB SITE:
A new messaging site from truth® will allow youth to share in the campaign’s tongue-in-cheek humor by sending their friends “Sunny” takes on otherwise negative situations. At thetruth.com Web site, “Blowin’ Sunshine” starts off with a darkened landscape of two grassy hills with a valley between them. A message like “So you had a crappy day” appears in the sky above the hills, but the scene changes when a sun rises in the valley between the hills to reveal hidden positives. Messaging sites like this one have proven popular with truth® fans in the past, allowing teens to share tobacco-related facts and information with their friends and peers while still having fun.
VIDEO GAME:
As part of the effort to reach teens everywhere they live and play, truth® will be integrated into the upcoming release of the video game, Midnight Club Los Angeles, a car racing game set in the streets of Los Angeles. Players will see billboards showing original truth® artwork from graffiti artists Jeff Soto and Nonconceptual, and one showing characters from the “Sunny Side of truth®” advertising campaign. Midnight Club Los Angeles will be released by Rockstar Games on October 7, 2008.
CINEMA:
truth® advertisements will continue to be seen on cinema screens around the country. Exactly 1550 theaters will show these ads prior to movies popular with teens. In addition, new static advertising – onscreen images shown before traditional advertising and movie trailers - will feature Web site information, accompanied by a song created by the band Cobra Starship for the truth® ReMix project.
All of the new third quarter campaign elements are designed to engage teens by presenting, in a non-preachy manner, information on the health and social consequences of tobacco use and the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry. 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.
“truth® consistently reaches into the media toolbox to find new ways and new channels to get its important life-saving messages out to teens,” said Dr. Cheryl Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, the national public health foundation which directs and funds the truth® campaign. “In an atmosphere of declining funds for the campaign, we remain diligent in exploiting new media that provide us with opportunities to connect the important messages of truth® and keep the campaign relevant and fresh to teens.”
The role of media in public health campaigns continues to be a timely topic. On August 21, the efficacy of the truth® campaign was cited in the release of an authoritative National Cancer Institute report that reached the government’s strongest conclusion to date that both tobacco marketing and depictions of smoking in movies promote youth smoking. The 684-page report, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, presents definitive conclusions that a) tobacco advertising and promotion are causally related to increased tobacco use, and b) exposure to depictions of smoking in movies is causally related to youth smoking initiation.
The report also concludes that mass media campaigns can reduce smoking, especially when combined with other tobacco control strategies. However, youth smoking prevention campaigns sponsored by the tobacco industry have been generally ineffective and may actually have increased youth smoking. The report provided the most current and comprehensive analysis of more than 1000 scientific studies on the role of the media in encouraging and discouraging tobacco use.
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: Trish O’Callaghan, the ad*itive, 215-525-1404; Patricia McLaughlin, American Legacy Foundation®, 202-454-5560