truth® Orange – the Color of Autumn

10/1/2009

Successful National Campaign Travels to New States and Cities for First-ever Fall Tour

Washington, DC; October 1, 2009 – truth^®, the nation’s largest smoking prevention campaign for youth, today kicks off a month-long outreach tour to seven states. The campaign extended its successful summer tour into different cities and more rural areas in select states. At popular local events and through grassroots one-on-marketing opportunities, young adult truth^® “crew members” will reach teens and educate them about the health effects and social consequences of tobacco use.

Every summer, truth^® crews connect with more than 500,000 teens, allowing teens to experience the truth^® campaign first-hand. This year, two crews and their signature orange “truth^® trucks” made more than 60 stops across 25 states as they traveled to some of the season’s hottest teen-oriented events and venues like rock and hip-hop concerts, action sports tournaments, and local skate parks and beaches.

During the month of October, a truth^® crew will bring this same energy and commitment to the more rural cities and towns in which truth^® has been able to develop a robust presence over the past three years via an extended advertising buy. The increased broadcast buy came as a result of a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The three-year, $3.6 million matching grant extended the campaign’s reach in 41 rural markets across the country, from Spokane, Wash.; to Des Moines, Iowa; to Sioux Falls, S.D.; to Bangor, Maine.

“Tobacco kills. More than 80% of today’s smokers started smoking as children,” said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden. “Tobacco industry practices continue to get our children hooked on tobacco. Each day in the U.S., approximately 3,900 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 years smoke their first cigarette, and 1,000 become smokers. We applaud this newest effort from truth^®.”

“We are grateful that further funding from the CDC will allow us to reach more teens in more regions of the country with the campaign’s life-saving messages, as part of our first-ever Fall tour,” said Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation.

“The truth^® campaign has proven effective in preventing teens from starting to smoke and, while the television ads are the most iconic part of the campaign, the one-on-one peer interaction of our crew members brings another level of engagement for youth. According to research published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, during its first four years, approximately 450,000 fewer adolescents and young adults initiated smoking as a result of the truth^® campaign. The tour environment is a tremendously effective part of that success; it gives us the perfect forum for teens to experience the campaign up close and in a personal, participatory fashion.”

The cities and states to which truth^® crew members will travel include the following:

Las Cruces, N.M.
Denver, Colo.
Boise, Idaho

The tour will also be in the following areas for the first time ever:

Missoula and Dillon, Mont.
Cheyenne, Wyo.
Topeka and Hays, Kan.
Portland, Belfast, South Paris, and TBD, Maine

Selected from a pool of more than 1400 applicants, the truth^® crew members are talented and charismatic young adults that engage in peer-to-peer interaction with teens attending concerts and events. The fun and engaging atmosphere makes it easier for truth^® crew members to discuss tobacco issues in a non-preachy way.

Crew members participating in this year’s tour will be:

Tiffany Sawczenko of Chicago, Ill. Tiffany is returning for her third truth^® Orange Tour after spending the previous two summers on the road.
Eddie Contreras of Bronx, N.Y., also a two-year veteran of the truth^® Orange Summer Tour.
Laretta Young from St. Louis, Mo., fresh off her first summer tour.
Nicole Paripurana from Centreville, Mich., also new to the summer tour this year.
Felix Lamorena from Los Angeles, Calif. rounds out the first-timers who are back on the road for the fall.

truth^® crew members will also be part of a new effort by the truth^® campaign to rename the term ‘Lung Cancer’ to ‘Big Tobacco Disease,’ in response to the fact that 90% of lung cancer comes from Big Tobacco’s products. Throughout the summer, truth^® collected signatures both online and in the field and more than 70,000 people have signed the petition to date.

Crew members will also hand out special “gear”’ – produced for this year’s tour: tote bags, bracelets, and a signature fall tour t-shirts. All of the gear was created using images and designs cool enough for teens to wear, yet the items still spread important messages about tobacco use and the tobacco industry. The goal of such giveaways is to create innovative and fashion-forward gear items that empower young people with knowledge about tobacco.

The fall tour will be enhanced online at www.thetruth.com, which receives approximately 200,000 visitors per month. At the site, users can learn about truth^®, meet truth^® crew members who will be out on tour, view video blogs and photos from the field, find out where upcoming events will be taking place, and view updates from tour stops.

During the month of November and beyond, teens in these states will also see truth^® advertising in cinemas prior to the showing of popular movies. The ads, exclusive to cinema, are all part of the latest ad campaign called Do You Have What it Takes?

Do You Have What it Takes? explores the kinds of decisions tobacco industry executives undertake – decisions that make for a successful, but deadly business. The ad campaign asks real-life job-seekers whether they would be willing to participate in the types of decisions and situations that tobacco industry executives have made or encountered. The new campaign will run through 2009 with television, print, cinema and online advertisements, along with a new Web site and social-networking elements.

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 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 http://www.americanlegacy.org/.

The American Legacy Foundation^® is equipped with a VideoLink ReadyCam™ television studio system, providing you with faster, easier access to the nation’s leading tobacco prevention and cessation experts. From this in-house broadcast studio, Legacy can offer immediate access to its experts to comment on breaking news, new research publications, or any news related to youth smoking prevention, adult quit smoking programs, or any issue related to smoking. The studio is connected directly to the Vyvx fiber network and is always available for live or pre-taped interviews. To arrange an interview using the ReadyCam, please contact Julia Cartwright at 202-454-5596.

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Contact: Stephen Winkler, 215-525-1106, swinkler@ad-itive.com