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GRAND RAPIDS SMOKERS BENEFIT FROM BECOME AN EX®

11/14/2007

Program in Grand Rapids and the West Michigan Area Helped Increase Local Smokers' Awareness About Quitting

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Results are in from a pilot public health program created by the American Legacy Foundation^® and implemented in partnership with Tobacco Free Partners that launched one year ago this week. The program, called EX^®, is a quit smoking campaign aiming to change the way smokers feel about the difficult process of quitting smoking, and pointing them to valuable resources to guide their quit attempts.  
 
The EX ads aired in two phases in Grand Rapids and the West Michigan area from Nov. 2006 through July of 2007. According to research released today in Grand Rapids, local smokers benefited from the campaign, many identifying that the goals of the effort -- to provide an empathetic voice to smokers about their quit attempts -- were met.

• During the first phase of advertising, which pushed smokers to cessation services, there was an 11 fold increase in calls to the State of Michigan Quitline, via the national portal number 1-800-QUIT-NOW. In addition, Grand Rapids smokers found the first phase of advertising to be empathetic to their struggles.

Among those smokers in Grand Rapids who were aware of the phase 1 EX ads:

• 94% said ads grabbed their attention.
• 83% said that EX came from someone who knew how they felt.

Grand Rapids smokers were also receptive to the second phase of advertising which focused on shifting smokers’ knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about quitting smoking. Among those smokers who were aware of the phase 2 EX ads:

• 68% thought that EX had information that could be helpful in their next quit attempt.
• 69% said that EX offered a new way to look at quitting smoking.

Grand Rapids was chosen as a test market because it is a nationally representative media market and at the time of the launch, had a lower level of tobacco control policies than other similar cities. The information collected during the pilot program is now being analyzed as the American Legacy Foundation aims to launch EX nationally next spring with an alliance of partners.

EX tools were designed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic and with input from former and current smokers who have lived with this struggle, in order to provide smokers with a realistic approach based on evidence based research.

Jil Palmer, a Grand Rapids resident, quit smoking one year ago using the EX program. “I have been speaking at classes offered by area not for profit groups regarding my battle in maintaining my new-found freedom,” Palmer said recently. “If it helps one person in this world become smoke free then it will be worth what little bit of effort it might take,” she added.

Most smokers in America – 70 percent – say they want to quit, but in 2000, only about five percent were successful in quitting long-term. Data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System indicates that 30 percent of the population in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area (including Kent County, Barry County, Ionia County and Newaygo County) are former smokers while 17 percent reported smoking everyday.

The American Legacy Foundation is a national public health foundation best known for its truth^® youth-smoking prevention campaign and underscores the fact that while smokers may know why they should quit, many just don’t know how. Therefore, EX steered away from focusing solely on the reasons for quitting and instead empowered them to use no-cost resources and methods that have been proven to increase smokers’ chances of quitting successfully. EX encouraged smokers who wanted to quit to:

1. Call the State of Michigan Quitline (1-800-QUIT-NOW) for personalized coaching;
2. Visit BecomeAnEX.org, where smokers were able to develop their own customized quit plans online and connect with a community of other smokers trying to quit; and
3. Order a free copy of the Become an EX Quit Manual, which debunked many of the myths associated with quitting, including the perception of nicotine replacement therapy, and walks smokers through a step-by-step plan to break nicotine addiction.

“The results of the EX pilot in Grand Rapids are extremely encouraging,” says American Legacy Foundation President and CEO Cheryl G. Healton, Dr. P.H. “Smokers in Grand Rapids got an early introduction  to this new, innovative campaign and we’re glad that its messages resonated so well with them.”

“It is great news that smokers in Grand Rapids benefitted from the Become an EX pilot here,” said Mayor George Heartwell. “Approximately 17% of Grand Rapids-area residents smoke every day – and that is far too many.  Tobacco remains the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S., so it is critical that effective smoking cessation programs like Become an EX provide them with the tools they need to quit.”     

The EX pilot was a collaborative program that used advertising as well as partnerships with local public health and community organizations to provide information to smokers who want to quit. In Grand Rapids, Legacy worked with Tobacco Free Partners, as well as local participating tobacco reduction coalitions and health departments throughout West Michigan, to make the program available to smokers.

"We were very excited, and proud to be chosen as one of the four cities nationally to partake in the American Legacy Foundation's EX campaign project in 2006," said Tom Peterson, MD, Chair of Tobacco Free Partners and Spectrum Health Healthier Communities Medical Director. "Tobacco Free Partners played a key role in organizing, working with and promoting the EX campaign, with great support from our mayor, community and media."

Creative for EX was produced by Austin, Texas-based GSD&M, the American Legacy Foundation’s agency of record for its smoking cessation advertising.

The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth^®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX^®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.americanlegacy.org.

To build partnerships that provide comprehensive tobacco prevention strategies, treatment programs, and influence policies to reduce the health, economic and emotional burdens that tobacco places on the residents of West Michigan. Tobacco Free Partners seeks to be a resource-rich, nationally recognized collaborative that serves as a centralized organization fostering comprehensive, evidence-based efforts toward a tobacco free West Michigan.

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Contact: Julia Cartwright, (202) 454-5596, jcartwright@americanlegacy.org; Kim Collins, (904) 280-2773, kcollins@golinharris.com