OTTAWA PUBLIC HEALTH CONDUCTS YOUTH ANTI-SMOKING CAMPAIGN
By Adnews Staff
Ottawa Public Health has begun a campaign called "Exposé" intended to reduce youth smoking in that city. Created by Hewson Bridge & Smith, the creative encourages young people to critically examine the facts about tobacco and its marketing. "We wanted to get students involved in thinking about how the tobacco industry operates, to empower them as individuals and to inspire them to redirect their inherent rebellious nature against the tobacco industry," said Don Hewson, president of the agency. The campaign, which will take place in all 51 Ottawa high schools, consists of peer-to-peer presentations, a fake tabloid newspaper called Tomorrow's Smoker and a poster contest. A three-month transit ad campaign and a Web site at <http://www.smokefreeottawa/expose> are also part of the initiative. "It was clear to us that the student-led approach that has characterized the program from the start would be equally effective for this social marketing campaign," said John Petitti, the firm's vice-president of strategy. "Having students deliver the anti-smoking message to their peers makes it relevant, something that's missing when it comes from government or from the school administration." First conducted in 2002 by Health Canada, the goal of the program is to reduce the youth smoking rate in Ottawa from 21 percent to 10 percent by 2012.