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Collaborative anti-smoking campaign deemed worthy of awards

By Andy Elder, Student Affairs Writer

When Linda LaSalle, a Community Health Educator with University Health Services, heard Centre County was to receive a share of Pennsylvania's settlement with the tobacco companies, it started her thinking.

She was sure University Health Services could put the money to good use, so she applied for funds. When Penn State was awarded a slice of the pie, it was up to LaSalle and University Health Services to make sure it was spent wisely.

"I knew the funds would be available and a campaign on tobacco is certainly an objective of our office. It fits into one of our goals," LaSalle said.

The result, spurred by the creative genius of University Publications and WPSX production, was an anti-tobacco ad campaign consisting of six posters, six television Public Service Announcements and six radio spots, all chillingly effective in pointing out the dangers of smoking.

The campaign centers on six themes:

• Swallow This: This theme lists some of the surprising ingredients of cigarettes and other places these same ingredients are found.
• Looks Glamorous: This theme points out how smoke exposure can prematurely age skin.
• Sexual Performance: This theme underscores how smoking can cause blood vessels to clog, which can lead to diminished sexual performance.
• Replacement Smokers: This theme zeroes in on how tobacco companies have targeted kids as "replacement smokers" for the 1,200 smokers who die every day.
• Been Bought?: This theme reveals that tobacco companies use specific tactics to target women and minority groups.
• Tobacco Smoke Pollution: This theme points out that of the more than 4,000 compounds emitted from the burning end of a cigarette, pipe or cigar and the smoke exhaled by the smoker, more than 40 are known to cause cancer.

While it is exceedingly difficult to measure how effective the campaign has been, those who have been exposed to it agree on one thing.

"We put together mini focus groups in biobehavioral health classes and shared the campaign with high school students," LaSalle said. "The students responded in mixed ways. Some thought they were absolutely great. But it was new information to almost all of the students."

Still other audiences told LaSalle and University Health Services something else - that the campaign was award-winning.

The public service announcements were awarded the Mid-Atlantic Regional Emmy Award. The poster campaign and the television PSA's won an International Award of Excellence from the Medical Marketing Association. And the posters won an Award of Excellence from the University and College Designers Association.

"It was incredibly exciting to know the PSA's won an Emmy. It was really nice," LaSalle said. "You never start out thinking you want to create an award-winning campaign. But it's still nice to have it recognized as high quality. That says a lot about the quality of this campaign"

And LaSalle is quick to give credit where she thinks it's due.

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