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truth® Launches its 9th Annual Summer Tour
6/12/2008
Hits the Road with Vans Warped Tour, Tony Hawk, Rock the Bells and Others
Washington, DC – truth®, the nation’s largest smoking prevention campaign for youth, will launch its 9th annual nationwide summer tour on Friday, June 13 in Jackson, Mississippi. On tour, truth® “crew members” will interact with local youth across the country to share information about the addictiveness of tobacco products, the adverse health effects of tobacco use, and the social consequences of smoking. Every year the dedicated young adults who make up the truth® crews for the tour connect with more than 700,000 teens at popular summer musical and sporting events.
This year, two crews and their signature orange “truth® trucks” will make more than 60 stops across 30 states, as they travel to some of the season’s hottest teen-oriented events. One crew will spend the summer traveling with the Vans Warped Tour®, an annual summer rock festival featuring upcoming bands as well as more well-known rock acts like Against Me!, Between the Trees, and We the Kings.
Another truth® crew will appear at different venues including:
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Tony Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam, an action sports extravaganza featuring skateboarding legend Tony Hawk along with the best skaters, BMX riders, and Freestyle Moto-Xers in the world
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The Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, a celebration of hip hop music and culture taking place July 10-12 in Brooklyn, New York
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Jubilee!JAMan arts and music festival in Jackson, Mississippi featuring popular, alternative and R&B bands mixed in with local music
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ROCK THE BELLS 2008, an international hip hop festival featuring performances by leading artists including A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, De La Soul, Mos Def and more.
“The truth® tour continues to be one of the most important ways we bring the truth® youth smoking campaign to life and face-to-face with the increasingly fragmented youth audience in America, so we’re delighted this year’s tour will be seen at such a variety of events that are cool and popular with the teen audience,” said Cheryl G. Healton, Dr. P.H., president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation®. “The tobacco industry spends in one day what we spend in one year, so it is imperative that we continue to find ways to remain relevant in the daily lives of teens. Having our crew members be the face of the campaign for the summer by sharing their knowledge, energy and personal stories around tobacco is an effective way to educate teens about the dangers of tobacco, empowering them to make the decision not to smoke.”
The truth® crew members are young adults selected from a pool of more than 1700 applicants to engage in peer-to-peer interaction with teens attending these concerts and events. The fun and engaging atmosphere makes it easier for truth®crew members to discuss tobacco issues in a non-preachy way. At each stop, crew members hold fashion shows, dance contests, and freestyle rap “battles”, teach DJ lessons through “Scratch Academy” (a group of DJs who school newcomers on the fundamentals of DJ’ing, scratching and mixing music), play games, and distribute truth® gear.
This year, the truth®-branded gear includes: booty shorts, drawstring bags, t-shirts and more. All of the gear was created using images cool enough for teens to wear, yet the items still spread important messages about tobacco use and the tobacco industry. The goal of such giveaways is to create innovative and fashion-forward gear items that empower young people with knowledge about tobacco.
A compilation CD of the truth® REMIX project will be given away as a special prize at all tour stops. The REMIX project features interpretations, by prominent DJs and music producers, of the songs from the current “Sunny Side of truth®” advertising campaign. Among the eight participating artists are the legendary Mixmaster Mike from the Beastie Boys, former Grammy nominee for the “Best Remix” category Kaskade, and two-time Coachella festival headliner DJ Z-Trip. The “Sunny Side of truth®” campaign, launched in January 2008, aims to shine a light on some of the activities of Big Tobacco and the health consequences of tobacco use by satirically pointing out some of the “hidden positives” associated with tobacco.
truth® is a multi-dimensional campaign, featuring advertising (television, radio, print, online), Web sites and interactive elements, events, and grassroots outreach through summer tours. The summer program will begin online at www.thetruth.com, which receives approximately 200,000 visitors per month. Users can learn about truth®, meet truth® crew members and DJs who will be out on tour, find out where upcoming events will be taking place, and view updates from tour stops. Free tickets to events can also be won online.
Teens will also learn about the truth® tour from two radio advertisements launching across the country at the end of June, as well as from banner ads placed on popular Web sites like MySpace, MTV, and WWE among others.
For more information on the Vans Warped Tour, visit http://www.warpedtour.com/
For more information on the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival, visit http://www.brooklynbodega.com/
For more information on the Boom Boom Huck Jam, visit http://www.boomboomhuckjam.com/
For more information on the Rock The Bells, visit http://www.guerillaunion.com/rockthebells/
For more information on the Jubilee Jam, visit http://www.jubileejam.com/
Arnold Worldwide/Boston and Crispin Porter + Bogusky/Miami are responsible for the design and gear for the summer program. GTM…It means a lot (Atlanta), manages truth® crew recruiting and operations, and the ad*itive (Philadelphia), a marketing communications company, oversees public relations. Mobile Media Enterprises of Atlanta provides all logistical and asset support.
BACKGROUND ON THE truth® CAMPAIGN
truth®, launched in February 2000, is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction, and the health effects and social consequences of smoking. truth®, allows teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products. The campaign was created by the American Legacy Foundation, which was founded as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry, 46 states and five U.S. territories. Payments to the American Legacy Foundation are made on behalf of the settling states.
In February 2005 the American Legacy Foundation released the results of an evaluation of the national truth® campaign that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during the first two years of the campaign (2000-2002) is directly attributable to truth®. This equates to 300,000 fewer youth smokers in 2002 as a result of the campaign.
The American Legacy Foundation, which provides strategic direction and funding for the truth® campaign, received in 2003 what is likely its final payment to the National Public Education Fund established by the Master Settlement Agreement. Despite its success, the truth® campaign now faces an unprecedented funding challenge.
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Contact: Patricia McLaughlin, 202-454-5560, pmclaughlin@americanlegacy.org; Stephen Winkler, 215-525-1407; swinkler@ad-itive.com