Legacy’s truth Campaign Named One of the Top Ad Campaigns of the 21st Century
January 14, 2015
Legacy’s truth campaign is the most innovative and successful advertising campaign ever conducted to prevent youth tobacco use in the United States. So it is highly deserved that Advertising Age magazine has named truth one of the top ad campaigns of the 21st Century. We congratulate Legacy on this tremendous honor.
The truth campaign has featured such iconic ads as “Body Bags,” which used body bags being dumped outside Philip Morris headquarters to visualize the 1,200 deaths caused by tobacco use each day. These ads empowered youth to reject the manipulative tactics of the tobacco industry.
As Ad Age put it in ranking truth at number 10 on its list, “The push encouraged rebellion and, for the first time, made it cool not to smoke.”
The truth campaign has been both effective and cost-effective in preventing America’s youth from smoking. One study found that truth was directly responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke during its first four years, while a second study found that the campaign resulted in savings of between $1.9 billion and $5.4 billion in health care costs in just its first two years.
It is terrific news that Legacy recently launched new truth ads that rally teens and young adults to be the generation that ends the tobacco epidemic for good. The ads’ challenge: Finish It.
“Following a century that was filled with advertising icons for the tobacco industry like the Marlboro Man and Joe Camel, it is truly an honor to be recognized as one of the top campaigns of this century.” said Robin Koval, CEO and president of Legacy. “We are up against an industry that to this day still spends billions of dollars every year on advertising; so we must always be pushing the innovation and creativity of our programs to get our life saving message out.'