Effective Tobacco Warnings

The United States is years behind other countries in terms of their warning labels on tobacco products.  Warning labels in many other countries are large, and prominent on packaging and advertising, indicating the importance which health agencies put on these warnings.

Sweden:

 From here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Swedish_warning_label_on_tobacco_20040810_001.jpg 

Portugal:

From here: http://blog.tpronline.org/?p=13

Canada:

From here: http://blog.lsc.edu/signs/2007/07/26/tobacco-warning/

The 1984 Comprehensive Smoking Education Act requires rotation of the following four black and white text messages on the side of cigarette packages:

1. Surgeon General’s warning: Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.
2. Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.
3. Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight.
4. Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide (3).

But how much more effective would these be?!

To learn more about the study that analyzed the above cigarette warning labels, visit Preventing Chronic Disease, a CDC publication.

To LIKE or not to LIKE

One of my professors sent me this very interesting article (http://mashable.com/2010/10/18/facebook-brands-likes-study/) that pertains to smoking and tobacco on Facebook.  It also speaks volumes about the degree to which social networks can influence all of us. 

People are most frequently "liking" brands on Facebook because of advertising they have seen or because a friend has suggested the brand - and that friend is serving as a secondary form of brand outreach.

Social media can certainly be used to influence youth to engage in unhealthy behaviors, but through campaigns like Smokeless Social Media, we can make a difference!

If you are interested in making a difference you can:
- Sign the Smokeless Social Media petition
- Sign the Global Link petition
- Join our Facebook page
- Like our Facebook page

We're not fighting alone

Fighting big tobacco companies and interests can be a daunting task.  And the more we delve into the issues surrounding tobacco advertising online, the more questions we come across.  But we have also come across more and more angles to tackle the problem and allies to help us.  Below are just two of the many organizations (and one petition!) that are on the same page as Smokeless Social Media.

Global Link 

http://www.globalink.org
(Check out their petition aimed at Facebook: http://www.globalink.org/petitions/facebook)

The Global Smokefree Partnership
http://www.globalsmokefreepartnership.org/

Who else do you know of that is fighting to protect minors from tobacco advertising?  What do you think is going well?  How could we improve?  Share you comments below!

One Signature at a Time

As a member of Smokeless Social Media, I am learning how important it is to build a strong network of supporters that will help further our cause.  We have been fortunate to have the support of a dedicated Advocacy class as well as other classmates in our Public Health program at GWU.  However, about a month after creating the SSM advocacy group, we decided to take our cause to the streets of DC.

On October 1st, Social Network was released and we thought what better time to elicit support for our cause.  So, four of us headed down to the Regal Cinemas in Chinatown armed with petitions and flyers and dedication.  Good thing we brought the dedication along!  From about 6:15pm until 7:30pm, we handed out flyers to any willing hand and stalked people (young, old, smoking, foreign, security guards, everyone!) to sign our petition.  We wanted to get our message out: social media should not be used as a tool for tobacco advertising.

In the end, we handed out a couple hundred flyers and racked up almost 60 signatures for our petition.  Not bad for about an hour worth of work.  And in the end, we learned a lot about how to work the mean streets of DC.

The Upside:
- Most people, even current smokers, do not want kids exposed to tobacco advertising or the negative effects of tobacco use.

- It's super easy to get people to sign your petition if they are waiting to cross the street and can't really go anywhere.  Use opportunities like this (or when people are waiting in line for fast food, looking for friends in the crowd...anyone standing still, really) to get people to listen.

- If you get one person in a group to take a flyer, listen to your pitch, or sign the petition, chances are their friends will too.

The Learning Moments:
- People will stare, say rude things, ignore you, make inappropriate comments, and even try to pick you up. But once in awhile someone will take a flyer or sign your petition.

- It's really hard to come up with a very brief few words (that are also truthful) to catch people's attention.  "Help us end tobacco advertising on Facebook" or "Don't expose kids to tobacco online" or any of the other things we shouted were just a tiny snip-it of what we are trying to do.  But if the snip-it gets attention, it's doing what we want.

- Even when you really care about an issue, it is not always easy to get others to care.  But, we've all got to start somewhere!

P.S. Please sign our petition!  Smokeless Social Media Petition

National Health Education Week

We're in the midst of National Health Education Week and this year's theme is tobacco prevention.

Tomorrow's topic is "Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth".

Check out some great information here: http://www.sophe.org/Sophe/PDF/Thursday.pdf

Work in progress

We here at Smokeless Social Media have been trying to develop a catchy/interesting/not-too complicated slogan.

We've got a lot of ideas but I think we've all been sitting in the slogan stew a bit too long and our creative brains are getting wrinkly.

We want to know what you think! What's going to help us grab attention and keep people interested?

Here are some of our ideas - leave a comment with your thoughts.

See through the fog


Friends don't let friends "fan" tobacco companies

Don't be fooled by the smoke screen  

Real friends will help you see through the smoke

 

Tobacco's blowing smoke. See through the fog.

 

Friends don't let friends have tobacco pages.

We'll keep you posted and put up our slogan as soon as we've got it nailed down.

Looking to quit smoking?

Be part of the GWU Be Free Study to help us find new ways of using text messaging to help people quit smoking.

The GWU Be Free Study is looking for GW students who are looking to quit smoking.  If you qualify for the study, you will receive up to $50 for completing 3 short surveys (15-45 minutes each).

Email Lalida Thaweethai at BeFree@gwumc.edu to see if you qualify.

Advertising, Warnings, and the Law

Surgeon General Warning – missing from tobacco adverts

From the FDA:  Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act

Tobacco advertising is required to attach warning labels. If the branded-tobacco groups are being created by tobacco companies then as far as we’re concerned, this is advertising. Where are the warning labels on the social networking sites?

Don’t believe me? Here’s a snippet of the law: Check out the link above for more details.

Unless, in the case of any tobacco product distributed

or offered for sale in any State, the manufacturer, packer,

or distributor thereof includes in all advertisements and other

descriptive printed matter issued or caused to be issued by

the manufacturer, packer, or distributor with respect to that

tobacco product—

‘‘(A) a true statement of the tobacco product’s established

name as described in paragraph (4), printed prominently;

and

‘‘(B) a brief statement of—

‘‘(i) the uses of the tobacco product and relevant

warnings, precautions, side effects, and contraindications;

and

‘‘(ii) in the case of specific tobacco products made

subject to a finding by the Secretary after notice and

opportunity for comment that such action is appropriate

to protect the public health, a full description

of the components of such tobacco product or the formula

showing quantitatively each ingredient of such

tobacco product to the extent required in regulations

which shall be issued by…

Get the branded-tobacco presence off of Facebook. Join our group, “Smokeless Social Media”.

Follow Your Own Terms of Service

Social networking sites are not holding up their end of the bargain and our youth is paying the price. Currently, more than 300 group pages exist for branded-tobacco. Together they have more than 156,500 “fans” or “followers”. But we don’t know how many of those fans are underage (i.e, not even old enough to smoke!).

We also don’t know who is developing these group pages. Are users making the pages or are the tobacco brands representing themselves? Either way, terms of use are being violated.

“You will not develop or operate a third-party application containing alcohol-related or other mature content (including advertisements) without appropriate age-based restrictions.”

“Ads cannot contain, facilitate, promote, or reference the following…tobacco products…”

           

It seems like either way, facebook needs to be removing these branded tobacco groups from the network.