BACKGROUND:

Currently, Oklahoma ranks among the nation’s unhealthiest states. However, steps toward a tobacco-free Oklahoma can help shift this position.

The effects of smoking are alarming. It kills more people than alcohol, AIDS, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. And thousands more die from other tobacco-related causes. It’s the leading cause of death and preventable illness in the U.S.

The Tobacco Stops With Me (TSWM) campaign provides an efficient, emotional and highly recognizable tobacco-free message for Oklahomans to rally around. The campaign highlights how tobacco use impacts Oklahomans, how it influences our loved ones, and how each Oklahoman has a role to play to reduce the burden of tobacco use and secondhand smoke in our state. One creative execution to communicate our message was a concept we developed, called Chalkboard.

OBJECTIVES:

• Educate Oklahomans on the dangers of secondhand smoke.
• Increase the amount of those who strongly agree that the TSWM campaign made them want to protect their families from secondhand smoke from 40% to 45%.
• Increase calls to the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline (OTH) by tagging all creative with an OTH call to action/logo

TARGET:

• Oklahomans
• Young adults and families

CAMPAIGN:

Chalkboard is an educational campaign that educates consumers on the fact that there are 70 cancer-causing chemicals in secondhand smoke and that 50,000 nonsmokers die each year from secondhand smoke related illnesses. Creative included print, outdoor, radio, digital media, TV and social media.

RESULTS:

The Chalkboard campaign concept was tested by online focus group before it was produced. Respondents preferred the spot because of its factual nature and because it presented a scientific argument.

In December 2014, the month after the Chalkboard campaign launch, call volume to the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline increased 58% during the two weeks that Chalkboard was on air, compared to the two weeks it was off air.

VI Marketing and Branding has been the TSET Media Services partner since 2007. Created by voters in 2000, TSET is an endowment trust established with payments from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between 46 states and the tobacco industry. Funds are invested by a Board of Investors and only the earnings from those investments are used by a Board of Directors to support efforts to improve the health of Oklahomans.

Customized health communication interventions are proven to be one of the most effective strategies for reducing tobacco use and promoting healthy behaviors in a population. Sometimes referred to as ‘advertising,’ these interventions are programmatic efforts designed to improve the knowledge, attitudes and healthy behaviors of specific, targeted audiences over time. Health communication interventions consist of researched, tested and evaluated public health-focused marketing campaigns with coordinated elements for earned, paid and owned content.

The goal of TSET’s investments in health communication interventions is to reduce the leading causes of preventable death in our state – cancer and cardiovascular disease – by preventing and reducing the two main risk factors – obesity and tobacco use. Through rigorous evaluation, TSET health communication interventions – Tobacco Stops With Me, Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline and Shape Your Future – are proven to increase healthy lifestyle choices by Oklahomans.