The 8 P's of Social Marketing

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.