Promoting a Smoke-Free Lifestyle in Las Vegas
Promoting a Smoke-Free Lifestyle in Las Vegas
Like many gay men who move to Las Vegas, Andrew Iha went out to the clubs at night to connect with his community. Like many gay men, he started smoking in those clubs. Andrew had moved from Hawaii to go to school at University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), and before he knew it, he went from social smoker to a pack-a-day habit.
A couple of Andrew's friends told him about a new kind of club night called CRUSH. It had all the glamour and sexiness, but none of the choking smoke. He was not aware at the time, but CRUSH is an innovative project of the Southern Nevada Health District (SNHD), an immersive lifestyle brand aimed at lowering the astronomical smoking rates of gays and lesbians in Las Vegas.
Like many grassroots approaches, this initiative aims to generate change from the bottom up. True change on a systemic level requires active reshaping of a culture. CRUSH aims to dismantle the norms that promote tobacco use in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, starting in a key location of community interaction: the nightclub.
CRUSH events are parties with a purpose, and they quickly became popular. "People in the community know CRUSH," said Andrew. "Smoker or non-smoker you are going to these events because they are great parties and one of the few places to be in a smokefree environment."
CRUSH is the brainchild of Malcolm Ahlo, Tobacco Health Educator, and Maria Azzarelli, Tobacco Control Coordinator, in the tobacco control division of SNHD. According to Ahlo, in 2005, the Clark County Adult Tobacco Survey showed smoking rates well over 60 percent in the Clark County LGBT community. "That was an alarming statistic to us, and we knew we had to do something quickly," said Ahlo. "That's when we applied for the American Legacy Foundation grant and started CRUSH." For the past decade SNHD has successfully nurtured two smoking prevention lifestyle brands for youth and young adults, and they proposed to attack the tobacco problem in the gay community with a creative approach as well.
"We didn't really know that we were taking a lifestyle strategy with the youth and young adult campaigns," said Azzarrelli. "But as it evolved, we realized that's really what it's all about- a lifestyle and identifying yourself with this particular brand and how you choose to dress, live and socialize."
Those campaigns saw results. Smoking rates among young adults (8-24 year old) in Clark County have substantially decreased since SNHD started these targeted efforts in 2000.1 Ahlo and Azzarelli set out to duplicate their success in the LGBT community.
"We knew we needed to find non-traditional partners because this is a non-traditional community," said Ahlo. "We couldn't really go to the hospitals and talk to the nurses about LGBT smoking prevalence because the gays don't go there. We had to go where the LGBT people go."
They reached out directly to nightclub owners and managers, the local Pride Council and the LGBT student groups at the local universities. They found that many folks did not believe tobacco was a real problem in the community. AIDS is the big killer, they heard time and again. Wrong, Ahlo and Azzarelli responded. Tobacco is claiming more lives than AIDS these days.2
They developed a relationship with Q Vegas, the largest LGBT magazine in Las Vegas to promote the CRUSH events in their print edition and their website homepage. The magazine has since dropped all tobacco promotions in solidarity with the project.
"Our first events were even more successful than we thought they would be," said Ahlo. "Other venues took notice. When we go to the biggest gay club in town, CRUSH fills it to capacity. We're talking about 1300 people per night. We've had to build the brand first and then built it up in the community."
CRUSH creates a club experience with overwhelming smoke-free marketing. Every bouncer, bartender, and server is decked out in signature CRUSH gear. A specialty cocktail is created for the night with a stir stick with a smokefree message. It is a completely message-soaked environment. Even the signs in the bathroom read, "If you're cute and fresh, be smoke-free."
In fact, the smoke-free messaging starts weeks before the event, through tailored text messaging to their group of over 1700 subscribers, encouraging them to think about quitting, or keep strong if they already have. "The texting is great, because it reminds me that I need to quit, and I'm not always thinking about that," said Andrew. "It makes me think about all those other guys who don't smoke and I think, well, why am I smoking?"
Fliers for CRUSH events are circulated through the community. Some folks like these fliers so much they put them in the rear window of their cars. "Every detail is aimed at driving people towards this lifestyle which is much better, healthier, fun and sexy than a smoker's lifestyle," said Azzarelli.
Some might dismiss CRUSH as just Vegas people partying it up and miss the serious impact it is beginning to have as a public health campaign with real social currency. "There is a strategy to this approach based on foundations of public health theory," said Azzarelli. According to Ahlo, preliminary studies indicate that the LGBT smoking prevalence rate in Las Vegas has now dropped 15 percent. The statewide quitlines now ask for sexual orientation, and some of the most successful LGBT clubs no longer feature tobacco sponsorship events.
"Smoking is prevalent in the LGBT community because they have stressed and uncontrolled lives," said Amir Hamza, a CRUSH club ambassador. "We have our personal troubles and we turn to smoking as a stress reliever. But with CRUSH, you look around and see all these gorgeous guys who don't smoke."
As for Andrew, he's still struggling with the habit, but at least he has found support in his community. "I'll pick a date and get my patches together and tell my coworkers that I won't be in the best mood for a while," he said. "I've tried to quit a couple of times, but I'm determined."
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1 Southern Nevada Health District, “Clark County Health Status Report 2007 Supplement, Volume 1,” Table 55, p. 59,
http://www.cchd.org/download/disease_factsheets/hsr_07sup-v1.pdf [accessed May 19, 2009]
2 NVSR Deaths: Final Data for 2005 and MMWR Smoking Attributable Mortality, United States—2000-2004