Tobacco Use in Philly
Philadelphia has seen an 18% reduction in adult smoking and a 30% decline in youth smoking. However smoking remains high among the general population and disproportionately elevated among African Americans, people living in poverty, and those with mental health conditions.
The Break The Cycle campaign, which started July 1, 2016, is designed to reveal the tobacco industry’s role in continuing the tobacco epidemic in Philadelphia.
Youth, racial and ethnic minorities, and low-income communities are particularly vulnerable to targeted tobacco industry marketing and advertising. These same communities also have more tobacco related illnesses and deaths.
Campaign Elements
- Radio and Broadcast TV
- Digital and Social Media
- Septa (Transit)
- Community Meetings
Campaign Goals
Break The Cycle campaign goals:
- Help educate friends, neighbors and loved ones about how big tobacco makes addictive products and tricks children into using them.
- Mobilize communities, houses of worship, unions, fraternities and sororities to warn people about big tobacco’s deadly products.
- Lovingly, tell anyone you know who smokes to quit, and tell anyone who doesn’t smoke, not to start.
Together we can beat big tobacco.
Key Messages
- This is the first campaign of its type in Philadelphia that targets the industry’s role in marketing tobacco usage in our communities
- Replacement smokers is a term for new smokers (most often young) that become regular smokers and replace other smokers who die from tobacco-related diseases
- Low-income and neighborhoods with high populations of people of color have higher concentrations of advertising in their neighborhoods and are more likely to become replacement smokers
- Philadelphians are powerful. They were able to shut down Uptown Tobacco Company when they came to the city
