Product: The Truth Campaign does not want to tell people
what to think, they give the audience the cold hard facts in hopes that this
will educate them enough to make their own decision to stop smoking.
Price: Hopefully, the audience will quit smoking and rise
against the tobacco industry.
Promotion:
The
campaign uses television ads to reveal facts about the tobacco industry. On
their Youtube page they encourage their viewers to create their own versions of
their ads and to post them. By asking people’s opinions on the tobacco industry
in front of the camera, and by asking them to create their own videos and talk
about it, people start talking about their problems with it and begin to
realize how upset they really are. In their ads and posters they never tell
people not to smoke, because this would elicit a rebellious reaction, where
teenagers would smoke to spite the ads. Sometimes there are other opportunities to
score apparel – so follow them on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. On their website they have interviews
with bands to promote their messages.
Partnership
and Public: They team up with concert tours such as Vans Warped Tour,
participate in Uproar and Six Flag concerts, and tour skate parks and the like.
When at these events they set up their big orange trucks, and give away free
hats, t-shirts and other gear. They also provide free concerts for
universities, and free meet and greets with the bands that play at them. These
bands also do interviews for Truth’s website.
This encourages a huge amount of attendance to their events, and here
they promote their campaign. People of this age are at a high risk of becoming
smokers, and so they are targeting university students. They say that those
that smoke are often doing it in rebellion, which is also how many people view
those that go to skate parks and vans warped tour kind of events (the general
teenage population) and so by attending these events they are reaching out
directly to their target audience.
They ask that you use share their Facebook
posts, Youtube videos, and tweets to spread the word, but if you want to get
more involved they provide an email address from which they can provide you
information on contacts in your community that could help you bring awareness
to your home.
Place
and Purse Strings: 46
states, the District of Columbia and 5 U.S. territories got together and sued
the major tobacco companies to try to recover some of the billions of dollars
spent caring for sick smokers. The tobacco companies settled out of court,
signing an agreement to pay the states a certain amount of money, and the
states then funded The American Legacy Foundation with a very small portion of
that money. 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. You can volunteer to be a part of their tours
or donate to their cause.
Policy: The Truth Campaign was developed by the government, and so
they are not trying to create a policy change. There are no policies that have
been enacted, but they have been reaching their goal of making people understand
that the tobacco industry is not honest.
