In 1985, the first paid media campaign to promote smoking as a socially undesirable behavior took place in Minnesota. It ended abruptly in 1993. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) evaluations of this campaign suggest that the TV and radio, ads were reaching at least 71% of the targeted population. Between 1986 and 1993 smokeless tobacco use among youth decreased from 9% to 3%, while the smoking rate remained constant-- a first for such a campaign.
In September 1984, the Tobacco Institute (TI) sought to undermine the Minnesota Plan for Nonsmoking and Health (MDH Plan) and its media campaign using a four part strategy: (a) promote the notion that "much of the underlying research for the plan is inaccurate;" (b) use third party involvement (National Association of State Boards of Education [NASBE] and their TI - sponsored "Help Youth Decide" campaign), (c) use Minnesota-based top labor unions and major Minnesota corporations, and (d) demonstrate that the campaign was "unnecessary, expensive and impractical."
Our newly discovered tobacco industry documents suggest that while TI privately sought to undermine the MDH Plan and its media component from the start using NASBE, and intended to also enlist Minnesota-based labor and business organizations ,tobacco control advocates failed to defend the media campaign. Rather than identifying and exposing these industry connections, tobacco control advocates, without questioning, went along with the public rationale of state budgetary crisis articulated by Governor Carlson (R) and the Legislature which resulted in eliminating this successful media campaign in 1993.
Learning Objectives: Learning objectives: Participants will get a much greater understanding of the first-paid nonsmoking advertisement campaign (first media campaign) in the United States, how industry sought to undermine it and how public health advocates failed to defend it. They will also be able to --Articulate the goals and objectives of the first media campaign --Recognize the crucial role of scientific research that informed the design and content of the first media campaign --Identify the significance of how the first media campaign was evaluated --Recognize the strategies and tactics used by the Tobacco Institute and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) to destroy the campaign through, in part, the Tobacco Institute's "Help Youth Decide" campaign --Recognize the role and rationale of public health advocates' relation to the first media campaign At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to: 1. Articulate the components and strategy involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of the first paid nonsmoking media campaign. 2. Identify and discuss how the Tobacco Institute used NASBE and Minnesota-based labor and business organizations to derail the campaign 3. Analyze and explain why the public health community failed to defend the first paid nonsmoking media campaign 4. Explain why the Minnesota Governor and the state Legislature sacrificed the first media campaign in the name of budgetary constraints.
Keywords: Tobacco Policy, Tobacco Industry
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Tobacco Institute, NASBE
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.