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Case
Studies
About BMI & Associates
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AMERICAN
HEART ASSOCIATION Situation Analysis
In 2003, during the American Heart Association’s
(AHA) campaign to reduce the number of children smoking
tobacco products AHA planned a communications campaign
which would inform opinion leaders that tobacco use, the
leading preventable cause of death in the United States,
kills more than 400,000 Americans every year and cost
nearly $90 billion in annual health care expenditures.
Ninety percent of smokers start at or before age 18.
Yet, a debate raged in the media about the impact of
increasing the tax on tobacco products.
Strategy & Implementation
BMI, in conjunction with Coopwood & Associates, used
targeted messaging delivered through creative tactics to
increase awareness and remind opinion leaders of the
importance of increasing cigarette tax as a solution to
reduce smoking among kids and adults.
To succeed in communicating the messages, BMI needed to
break through the clutter of negative publicity
surrounding the proposed tax increase to help opinion
leaders understand that several strategies should be
used to reduce the number of teenagers who become
addicted smokers. We needed to empower opinion leaders
to ask experts tough questions rather than rely on
often-erroneous data supplied by the tobacco industry
about the effects of price and access laws on teenage
smoking initiation. Our main objective was to motivate
opinion leaders to review the data published by
researchers so they could learn the facts and get
answers.
The campaign, entitled "Save the Children; Adults Don’t
Start Smoking, Kids Do; Support the Tobacco Tax,"
focused on breaking through the "noise" of the negative
publicity surrounding the proposed tax increase to help
opinion leaders understand that several strategies
should be used to reduce the number of teenagers who
become addicted smokers
Strategies were designed to:
- Reach audiences through a clear and concise local
media relations campaign
- Use empowering, motivating and creative tactics to
capture the audience's attention and convince media to
allow key messages to be heard
- Deliver key message: Every state that has
significantly increased its cigarette tax has enjoyed
substantial increases in revenue, even while reducing
smoking.
- Leverage the credibility of the organization and
its board members in our communications
The execution and tactics used were:
- TV News Stories
- Many stations chose to do news stories about
the initiative. Select interviews with key TV media
proved to be successful, especially in the local
press.
- Grassroots Community Call
to Action - Directors from local
organizations large and small encouraged their
constituents to join with AHA – and its campaign
partners -- to support the tax increase. BMI also
mobilized child welfare organizations and leadership
in the faith based community.
- Print - A
press release received good coverage in smaller
community papers. Outreach included key messages and
ways for readers to learn more about the anti-tobacco
initiative.
Interviews with Select Reporters - A representative
from campaign partner, the American Lung Association,
as well as others from the partnership team availed
themselves to select reporters for interviews on the
subject of higher cigarette taxes.
Results
The program was an enormous success, garnering more
attention than previous program years. The General
Assembly increased the tax on tobacco products in the
2003 session.
Web site visits were up substantially in October 2003
compared to 2002, and there was also an increase in the
number of questions submitted online. Campaign partners
appeared on both network and cable television.
Print coverage included the Atlanta Journal Constitution
and numerous other publications reaching more than a
million readers.
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