A cloud of cigarette smoke hovers around the entrance to Middleton Library. Students sit on the benches, taking slow drags from their cigarettes. Some students glare at the smokers as they walk, while others simply ask to borrow a lighter. Since February 2000, the American Legacy Foundation’s Truth Campaign has attempted to overshadow the tobacco industry with anti-smoking messages in print and on the Internet, television and radio. Some on campus say the ads are effective, while others say they do not encourage smokers to stop. The campaign is the nation’s largest anti-smoking movement not sponsored by the tobacco industry. It aims to prevent and stop tobacco use among teens and young adults with its “controversial” advertising. Some of the campaign’s ads feature confrontations with representatives from tobacco companies and 1,200 body bags indicating the amount of people who die from tobacco use each year. According to the Truth Campaign’s fact sheet, the ads are “in-your-face and hard-hitting because teens respond to up-front and powerful messages that display courage and honesty in a forceful way.” Judith Sylvester, mass communication designated professor and SmokingWords coordinator, said the Truth Campaign’s approach to anti-smoking advertising sets it apart from other public service announcements. “That shocking aspect is kind of what they need to get the message across,” she said. SmokingWords, a partner of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living, is a localized anti-smoking campaign that \promotes education about the health risks involving tobacco use at LSU and Southern University. Sylvester said SmokingWords resembles the Truth Campaign because of their similar target audiences. Sylvester said SmokingWords’ original research found that 27 percent of the University’s undergraduate population smoked cigarettes. She said the campaign has helped nonsmokers become more vocal about second-hand smoke on campus. “We’ve spent the last six years trying to educate students about the ramifications of smoking,” she said. “We’ve tried to focus on the cosmetic aspects of it, and more recently, the effects of second-hand smoke.” According to research by the American Legacy Foundation, 27 percent of teens and young adults live in a household with at least one smoker, and 16 percent are exposed to second-hand smoke in their home. Kade Thibodeaux, history junior, said his mother smokes cigarettes, but he is not bothered by second-hand smoke. Like many political and social campaigns, the Truth Campaign uses the Internet as an advertising tool. The campaign’s Web site, thetruth.com, features interactive elements that allow visitors to access facts about tobacco use and provide feedback about the campaign. By giving their audience a way of interacting and commenting on the campaign, the American Legacy Foundation can learn what things they are doing right and how to improve the campaign to make it more appealing or effective. According to the Truth Campaign’s fact sheet, teens are used in testing all of the campaign’s advertising concepts to make sure the campaign’s anti-smoking message is on target and relevant to its audience. Ryan McCaffery, political science and history sophomore, said he likes the activist approach to the campaign, but the commercials would not make most people quit smoking cigarettes. Although research in the March 2005 issue of the American Journal of Public Health attributes a 22 percent decline in youth smoking between 2000 and 2002 to the Truth Campaign, perspectives about the campaign’s effectiveness vary. Jessica Lassalle, business marketing sophomore, said the Truth Campaign may prevent some people from smoking cigarettes, but it probably would not cause someone to quit altogether. “If you’re a smoker, you’re addicted,” said Lassalle, who has smoked Marlboro Lights for six years. “A commercial isn’t going to make me quit. You have to want to quit.” Renee LaCoste, fashion design freshman, said she has never smoked cigarettes, but she likes the campaign’s commercials. “I know a lot of people will smoke regardless,” she said. “To me, it makes me appreciate more that I don’t.” LaCoste said her grandfather smoked cigarettes from the time he was in high school until the late 1980s and died from emphysema. She said witnessing the health effects smoking had on her grandfather affected her decision not to smoke. Research by the American Legacy Foundation states that “daily smoking is highly associated with addiction,” so quitting can be difficult for some people. Lassalle said she smokes about a half to a whole pack of cigarettes a day. She said she quit smoking for two months because it was affecting her health, and she was not able to exercise without tiring easily. But she began smoking again because cigarettes provided relief from stress.
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