Rescue Agency | Tobacco

Tobacco

While national tobacco use rates are declining, tobacco use remains high among specific high-risk subpopulations, especially with new products such as e-cigarettes. For nearly 20 years, Rescue has been at the forefront of behavior change marketing innovations within tobacco control, developing new best practices to reach priority populations including youth, LGBT, low-income, and multicultural audiences.

See below to learn about three strategies we use to prevent and reduce tobacco use.

While people are generally aware of the health risks associated with using traditional tobacco products like cigarettes or chew, there’s less knowledge around other tobacco products like e-cigarettes and hookah, and misconceptions about how cessation services work.

At Rescue, we start by understanding who our audience is and what they care about, as well as their gaps in knowledge about tobacco use risks. Then, using our Decision Blocks™ framework, we build up knowledge in a logical and believable progression to show how the risks of each tobacco product are relevant to their lives.

From excise taxes to keeping indoor spaces smoke-free, policy changes are an effective way to reduce tobacco use for large portions of a population. But policy change, whether voluntary or legislative, does not happen overnight. Our Policy 360™ model guides communities through a strategic process of education, advocacy, and galvanizing support for new policies to promote health.

Policy 360™ starts by bringing policy gaps to the attention of advocates, and sparking urgency for new policies to reflect the values and expectations of the community. We then work to document this urgency by collecting evidence of support from constituents and stakeholders to motivate decision-makers.

Some people use tobacco despite health-risk knowledge and strong tobacco control policies. In these instances, we must go beyond education and policy to shift social norms. At Rescue, we use our Social Branding® strategy to create highly tailored campaigns to reduce youth and young adult tobacco use by shifting high-risk norms.

Social Branding® is built on 20 years of experience researching and engaging high-risk audiences. Using peer crowd segmentation, we engage hard-to-reach audiences through campaigns that authentically reflect their values and lifestyles to show why tobacco use contradicts who they are. This strategy is the focus of numerous tobacco control publications on hard-to-reach populations.