New Tobacco Campaign Targets Young Adults
For Release #05-277
Thursday, Oct 27, 2005
WHITEHORSE -- Bright colors, catchy music and non-traditional venues to make the Yukon government's new young adult tobacco cessation campaign stand out.
"We want to encourage young adults to become smoke-free and we knew that their input and involvement in this campaign were absolutely critical if we were going to develop something that would have a real impact," Health and Social Services Minister Peter Jenkins said at today's launch of the new campaign.
The 'I'm moving on -- smoke free" campaign compares giving up smoking to leaving a relationship. Young adults who have gone through a relationship break-up know that the first few days and weeks are the worst but that eventually life gets back to normal. Giving up cigarettes is a similar process.
"The new campaign is the culmination of work done with and by young adults in focus group discussions, and a song-writing workshop. Three full-length songs were produced by young adults who attended the workshop, and 12 more young Yukon adults appear in our print ads," Jenkins said. "We also have groups of youth and young adults distributing posters and postcards in each Yukon community."
This smoke-free campaign builds on the previous campaign featuring northern faces and northern voices.
"When we evaluated the last campaign, it became quite evident that local faces had a huge impact," Jenkins said. "Having Yukon faces on our campaign makes it real for folks."
Funded by Health Canada, and partnered with Recreation and Parks Association of Yukon, this campaign is using some non-traditional methods of reaching young adults.
"Many people in this group are quite physically active. So we're advertising at the ski hill, arenas and recreational centres. We are sending out postcards to friends and families, and the local theatres will be playing the 'quit songs'. We're looking at other options as well."
Young adult smokers who participated in the focus groups were clear that they want to quit, and that they want help to do so. Because of this feedback, a QuitPack was designed to help smokers kick the habit. The kit contains a road map to become smoke-free and a number of tools to help fight the nicotine urge.
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