In 2014, the teen smoking rate was lower than ever. As great as that was, research showed that young people didn't think of smoking as a problem. But Big Tobacco was developing more manipulative ways than ever before to market their product to the youth. Truth needed a new way to inspire this new generation of teens to care about the fight against smoking. So, we introduced a new mission – be the generation that ends smoking. Our rallying cry: Finish It. To kick off the movement we hijacked the biggest, loudest, and most controversial party for teens - The MTV Video Music Awards. While artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Chris Brown were accepting their awards, we ran a series of spots that put their smoking photos on blast. The message was clear – every time smoking photos get posted on the internet Big Tobacco gets free marketing. On the big night we assembled a war room to monitor the social conversation and engage with fans and haters in real time. Next we gave teens tools to take matters into their own hands; by erasing and replacing smoking pics or repping the orange X on their profiles. As the campaign spread, we put out a series of spots celebrating progress as it happened. For example, when CVS stopped selling cigarettes. In just 6 months 2.6 million have gotten on board, 121 million have been reached by #FinishIT, and since last year, the teen smoking rate has gone from 9% to 8%.
We stole the cultural megaphone and put truth back on the map. Before we began our campaign we had 27% awareness among our 15-21 year old audience. After the VMA's we hit 60% awareness, exceeding our goal by 13 percentage points. We made smoking a hot button issue again; socially amplifying the conversation among all teens not just those at risk. Our campaign generated $13.8 million in earned media impressions; expanding our dollars spent by 100% and doubling our original 50% goal. We went beyond merely exposing the truth about smoking and big tobacco, and inspired our audience to participate in the fight against smoking. All communications from truth would send people to thetruth.com where simple-yet-powerful tools were provided for new recruits to make clear and tangible progress towards making smoking a thing of the past. Front-facing analytics tools showed precisely how much of an impact this generation was having on the fight to end smoking. We saw a 146% increase in average traffic to thetruth.com, with 147k people visiting thetruth.com within 24 hours of the VMA's.This battle was a massive win for our side, but the campaign to end smoking is far from over. We're just getting started. Since last year the teen smoking rate has gone from 9% to 8%. And make no mistake - we will finish it.
