IN.gov - Skip Navigation

Note: This message is displayed if (1) your browser is not standards-compliant or (2) you have you disabled CSS. Read our Policies for more information.


Subscribe for e-mail updates
Print This Page Rate This Page Suggest a Link E-mail This Page HELP Find a Person Find an Agency

NEW Infect truth® CAMPAIGN GIVES YOUNG PEOPLE “DIGITAL VIRUSES”TO SPREAD THE truth®



Washington, D.C., October 23, 2006 – truth®, the American Legacy Foundation®’s national youth smoking prevention campaign, today launched its latest advertising installment, Infect truth®. The campaign is a new spin on an earlier, highly effective, phase of truth® and includes new creative for TV and print executions, as well as an extensive interactive component to spread the truth about tobacco use and addiction. In typical bold truth® style, Infect truth® ads offer attention-getting scenes and hard-hitting facts - including information about substances found in cigarettes - and encourage teens to share this knowledge with their friends.

Recently vindicated in its long legal battle with the Lorillard Tobacco Company, truth® stays the course with its latest in-your-face campaign. A Singing Cowboy with a hole in his neck from a tobacco-related laryngectomy kicks off the TV campaign singing a song about smoking. The TV spot Sodium Hydroxide draws attention to the fact that sodium hydroxide is found in cigarettes as well as hair removal products. The campaign tagline “Knowledge is contagious: infect truth®” shows teens that if you’re informed, you’re “infected” and can therefore spread the knowledge that will allow everyone to make smarter decisions about tobacco use.

Playing off the popularity of digital media in teens’ lives, truth® takes its message one step further and has added some distinctive interactive elements through its Web site (www.thetruth.com). The “Infections” consist of downloads, mini-sites, TV spots, and tobacco fact –based messages called “Quickies”. Teens can download screensavers, desktop themes, do-it-yourself print tools, play games, and even send messages written in back hair at Hairy-Mail.com – all designed to spread virally throughout the online teen community. The interactive component of the campaign will enable teens to “spread the infections” either online, in their everyday environments, or just in conversation among their peers.

Two features on the homepage will allow users to see how contagious the infections are: one will be in the form of a building representing the tobacco industry; the other is a “growth” which expands on the side of the building to reflect the number of “Infections” spread since the campaign’s launch. Together the building and the “growth” will represent, in essence, the power of these viral “Infections” to counteract the ongoing actions of the tobacco industry.

By zooming in on the “growth” users will experience a visual representation of the network of friends they’ve personally “infected” with knowledge. An animation of multiplying cells illustrates this network, and the more infections spread, the larger a person’s network will grow.

“Our goal is to give teens the resources they need to make informed decisions about smoking and the tobacco industry by helping to spread the truth from peer to peer,” said Cheryl Healton Dr. P.H., President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation. “The fact is, the tobacco industry spends more than 41 million dollars a day marketing its products in the U.S. alone – that’s approximately equal to the total advertising budget the truth® campaign spends in one entire year. With the American Legacy Foundation’s declining funding in this David versus Goliath battle, we need to ensure truth® stays innovative, relevant and resourceful in how we reach our nation’s youth to keep them from smoking. Harnessing the power of technologies popular with teens is one way to do this.”

The television spots Singing Cowboy and Sodium Hydroxide will roll out during the weeks of October 23, and October 30, 2006.

More complete content of the television spots follows:

Singing Cowboy: Opens with a man dressed as a cowboy riding a horse down a busy city street to meet his sidekick, who strums his guitar to get people’s attention. The Singing Cowboy removes a bandanna around his neck to reveal a hole from a laryngectomy. He begins singing a song, which starts with the lines “You don’t always die from tobacco” with the help of an electro larynx (a hand-held electronic voice box). At the conclusion of the song, we see a card with the words: Over 8.5 million Americans live with tobacco-related illnesses.

Sodium Hydroxide: A group of men remove their shirts and stand in a line in a busy city center. They turn around to reveal their backs, which are covered in thick body hair. truth® teens brush sodium hydroxide on the men’s backs as the crowds gather around to view the action. One teen comments through a megaphone: “Sodium hydroxide is a caustic compound found in hair removal products.” The teens begin to wipe off the hair with paper towels and the same teen comments: “It is also found in something else.” We see a letter on each man’s back, spelling out the word “Cigarettes.”

At the end of each TV ad, we see white asterisks appear above the heads of onlookers indicating they've been “infected” with knowledge.

The television spots will air on popular youth channels such as MTV, Comedy Central, G4 Tech TV and BET, among others. Print advertisements will follow in popular youth magazines in November books. The ads will feature viral components such as stickers to encourage young people to spread knowledge regarding the contents of cigarettes. Radio spots will air in January.

The Infect truth® campaign was created by the American Legacy Foundation and its partners, Arnold Worldwide of Boston and Crispin Porter + Bogusky of Miami. Danish Director Nicolai Fuglsig brings his vision to the TV spots. Fuglsig is not only an award-winning TV commercial director, but has also won accolades for his still photography and film making. The campaign will run through March 2007.

****************************** 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 campaign was created by the American Legacy Foundation, which was founded as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry, 46 states and five U.S. territories. Payments to the American Legacy Foundation® are made on behalf of the settling states.

In February 2005 the American Legacy Foundation released the results of an evaluation of the national truth® campaign that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during the first two years of the campaign (2000-2002) is directly attributable to truth®. This equates to 300,000 fewer youth smokers in 2002 as a result of the campaign.

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.