New FDA Anti-Tobacco Youth Campaign Could Be Similar to Florida's Program
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
By: Alicia Mandigo

February 4th, 2014|WMFE Orlando. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is launching its first anti-tobacco campaign aimed at youth. The FDA says its ads will be visually compelling, which likely means they'll be edgy. It's an approach that's worked well in Florida.

[Tobacco Free Florida officially launched in 2007]

One of the big goals of Florida’s teen anti-tobacco campaign is to keep kids from ever trying that first tobacco product. So there’s SWAT- Students Working Against Tobacco. There are videos online and anti-tobacco ads on television. The ads are edgy and shocking- but they work. American Lung Association Southeast Program Director Lynn Penyak says shock value can really cut through don’t do this, don’t do that messaging that leaves kids asking why.

“This is why- look at the gentleman who doesn’t have a leg or the woman who only smoked for a few months and she lost her voicebox. That right there stuns everybody, ” she says.

The Tobacco Free Florida campaign launched in 2007. From 2007 to 2013, youth smoking dropped from 10.5-percent to 6.1-percent.