OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY
Smokefree Oregon is a brand we developed to help OHA. While our work supports tobacco users in their efforts to quit, an even larger focus for our work has been on engaging the broader community in a discussion about the way the tobacco industry targets the most vulnerable Oregonians, and how that impacts all of us. One campaign revealed the industry’s use of colorful, candy-flavored tobacco products to appeal to kids.
A movement building strategy of our work has been to highlight Oregonians leading the way in the fight against tobacco in their communities. These personal stories give community leaders ownership in the fight and advance public will for policy change.
We’ve leveraged social media as a primary means of engaging partners and alliances while inviting the public to join the dialogue about tobacco’s impact on our state.
Our PR team has built on this strategy with out-of-the-box thinking to earn media coverage and grow campaign momentum. On OHA’s behalf, we sent out “candy jars” filled with flavored tobacco products to help reporters and state leaders visualize the type of products being marketed by Big Tobacco. Those deadly products, in colorful packaging and flavors such as Gummy Bear™, appeal to kids and contribute to the next generation of tobacco users. Our work has helped expose the tobacco industry for defrauding the American people for decades by lying about the health effects of smoking and marketing to children.
We helped manage OHA’s tobacco prevention communications efforts from 2007 to 2018. During that time, Oregonians dropped their smoking rate, increased tobacco taxes, restaurants went smoke-free and voters increased the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21. All the while, the record for calls to the Tobacco Quit Line has been reset several times.
Headlands