New Awareness Campaign Aims to Clear the Air About Secondhand Smoke

For immediate release
Media Contact:
Jason Melancon, TFL
504.301.9841
Amy Ferguson, Keating Magee
504.299.7175

New Orleans, LA, March 23, 2005 Today the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) unveiled Lets Clear the Air, a new media campaign designed to increase public knowledge of the health dangers of secondhand smoke, at the 2005 Summit for Tobacco-Free Living in Baton Rouge. The campaign consists of television, radio and outdoor advertising, which begin this month and are currently projected to run statewide through June. Trumpet Advertising of New Orleans developed the campaign. TFL also launched its new website, designed by Whence: the Studio.

Earlier this year, we conducted research throughout the state which told us that most Louisiana residents view secondhand smoke as an annoying nuisance, explained Kelly Fogarty, TFL advertising manager. But there is little awareness of the very real health dangers of passive smoking. This media campaign is TFLs next step in trying to educate the public about the toxins they are exposed to in secondhand smoke.

The campaigns objectives are, first, to educate the public to identify tobacco smoke as a dangerous threat to their health; second, to begin changing public perception about secondhand smoke exposure and motivating people to take action in their personal environments and their communities; and third, to inform people that TFL is a resource for those wanting smoke-free environments. The newly designed website, www.tobaccofreeliving.org, provides resources and information for those wanting to get involved in tobacco control, such as event listings, tool kits to create smoke-free environments, cessation programs, and regional contacts. It also contains tobacco facts to support peoples conversations and efforts.

Lets Clear the Air, focuses on the fact that non-smokers are inhaling deadly toxins whenever they are around smokers. The first television spot people will see, titled Plant, shows two Louisianians driving past a plant with puffing smokestacks. When the driver, a smoker, rolls up his window against the pollution, his sleeping passenger exhales secondhand smoke that hes breathing inside the closed vehicle. Two additional commercials, set in a restaurant and a business meeting, communicate the same message: anyone exposed to a smoker is inhaling the same toxins as the person smoking the cigarette. Radio commercials and billboards around the state will reinforce these messages.

We feel confident that the new advertising, supported by a more robust and user friendly website, will really begin to turn peoples perceptions about secondhand smoke, said Fogarty. Most of the health statistics that put us at the bottom of the national list of our residents health are related to tobacco smoke for smokers and nonsmokers alike. These commercials are designed to drive the idea home that secondhand smoke hurts all of us.

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living provides statewide coordination of existing tobacco control initiatives, funds innovative community programming for tobacco control, and develops statewide media campaigns to help reduce the excessive burden of tobacco use on the states resources and improve Louisianas overall health and quality of life.

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Tobacco Fact: Secondhand smoke is a Class A carcinogen, a substance known to cause cancer in humans and to which there is no safe level of exposure. Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, 69 of which cause cancer. The air in smoke-filled rooms contains 6 times more carbon monoxide than you would inhale standing in the middle of the busiest freeway during rush hour.