To extinguish tobacco's "cool" image among teens, youth advocates are often the best messengers. This is the premise of the American Lung Association's successful TATU outreach program (Teens against Tobacco Use) which scored a major managed care partnership coup last year.
In April, Humana pledged $2 million and 50,000 employee volunteer hours - TATU's largest combined source of financial and corporate volunteer support in nine markets.
For Humana, this partnership allows the health plan to make a bold positioning claim. "We put our money where our mouth is," says Tom Noland, Humana's VP of corporate communications. In other words, the considerable financial and volunteer support "shows," rather than tells, how serious the health plan is about making a difference in youth tobacco use.
So far, the Humana/TATU campaign has recruited the support of 500 teen volunteers and 125 employees, and has attracted significant local media coverage in five of the nine markets in which it is being implemented, including Louisville, Ky., Chicago, Miami, San Antonio, Tex. and Tampa, Fla.
Overall, the program, which is part of the ALA's 12-year-old national umbrella "Smoke-Free Class of 2000" initiative, has recruited 4,000 adult trainers and 30,000 teen trainers, reaching as many as 300,000 elementary school kids. McNeil Consumer Products is the program's national sponsor.
Teens as Role Models
The partnership offers a customized way to tackle the problem of youth tobacco use in each of nine markets in which Humana operates.
The outreach formula uses local ALA coordinators who are knowledgeable about the specific youth tobacco awareness needs of each community. They train Humana employee volunteers on how to reach elementary school children (primarily fourth-, fifth- and sixth graders) with customized antismoking messages.
For instance, Humana volunteers are trained to work with teens, who in turn talk to younger students about the dangers of tobacco use. The program transforms teens into child advocates, encouraging children to talk openly about their personal brushes with tobacco and educating them about how tobacco companies often target teenagers with youthful marketing campaigns, a la Joe Camel.
The PR value of the partnership is twofold, says Humana's Noland, referring to the internal and external promotional topspin the partnership generates.
The 50,000 volunteer hours Humana's 17,000 employees are contributing makes a strong symbolic gesture about its commitment to attacking youth tobacco use at the community level.
It is estimated that the program will reach more than 10,000 teens and 125,000 elementary students by the end of the year. The significant volunteer contribution is also a "great morale booster" among employees who can exhibit their leadership skills while working for a worthy cause.
Last year Humana launched high-profile press events in Louisville, Ky. (corporate headquarters) and Miami featuring Olympic gold medalist Kerri Strug. The media hook at the Miami event, held in October at an elementary school, was Strug extinguishing the world's largest cigarette - a 50-foot tall cylinder.
Strug was the celebrity face the campaign needed, says Bob Lauder, VP of Doe Anderson, TATU's PR agency in Louisville.
Strug was down to earth and eager to talk one-on-one with kids about "being strong enough to make the right decisions in life," Lauder said.
The top newspapers, TV stations and radio stations in both the Louisville and Miami markets highlighted Strug's participation in the campaign.
Although Strug was the face of the campaign, media relations efforts emphasized the high social cost of youth smoking in each market, including:
- At least 3.1 million adolescents nationwide are current smokers.
- Nearly 34 percent of children smoke in Florida.
- U.S. healthcare costs associated with smoking totaled $50 million in 1993.
As the campaign evolves, the focus of media pitches will be on teens who are championing anti-smoking efforts on a local basis, says Lauder. This spring, Humana is rolling the program out in Austin, Tex., Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Fla., and Kansas City.
(ALA, Cynthia Wright, 212/315-8790; Doe-Anderson, Bob Lauder, 502/589-1700; Humana, Tom Noland, 502/580-3676)
The Grassroots Pitch
While the national statistics on teen smoking are staggering, attacking it on the local level is vital, says Cynthia Wright, ALA/TATU's director of marketing.
Every day 3,000 children start smoking and a third of those children will, as adults, eventually die from a smoking-related illness, according to the ALA.
While national public service campaigns are necessary to combat the powerful marketing images from tobacco companies, local outreach is what brings salient messages home.
To this end, the program will pursue "service learning" opportunities with schools that allow students to receive credit toward graduation for participating in TATU.
And on the promotional front, the program is ideal for local youth-focused forums, marches and town meetings, says Lauder.