Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Addressing the Youth Vaping Epidemic in Hawaii

iQ 360 launched a campaign urging legislators to protect the youth of Hawaii. It’s a winner for Public Health Campaigns in PR Daily’s Content Marketing Awards.

In 2019, 30.6% of Hawaii high school students used e-cigarettes (compared to a national average of 19.6%). Hawaii also had the highest reported vaping rate among middle schoolers — 15.7%. A bill to ban flavored tobacco products used in e-cigarettes during Hawaii’s 2022 legislative season looked promising, but it was ultimately amended to the point that the governor vetoed it for having no significant impact.

For the 2023 session, iQ 360 developed a campaign using both paid advertising and earned media to shape public perception around vaping, work with members of the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) Hawaii and create widespread support for anti-vaping, anti-flavors bills.

iQ 360 and the CTFK team identified elected officials who would be key decision makers throughout the legislative process. The strategy to reach these elected officials included targeting publications and media outlets that are frequently read by legislators and their staffs, as well as geo-targeting the state capitol to ensure ads were delivered directly to the target audience.

iQ 360 created ads celebrating elected officials who signed CTFK’s pledge to say “No” to tobacco money and “Yes” to protecting Hawaii’s youth. It also sent postcards to 40,000 households thanking elected officials who signed the pledge. The team also raised awareness with print ads on the local youth vaping epidemic featuring statistics about how Hawaii has some of the highest rates of youth vaping in the nation – especially in the more rural Hawaiian Islands.

For the upcoming legislative session, the team developed the “Shave Ice” advertising campaign. The campaign featured a shave ice truck appealing to children with playful music and tasty flavors but adding toxic chemicals to each product, much like such flavored tobacco products as strawberry, passionfruit and blue razz. The ”Shave Ice” ad ran in print, digital, TV, radio, YouTube and on outdoor signage.

iQ 360 also secured earned media placements for articles in state and regional publications. Three local doctors authored an article explaining how flavors encourage tobacco addiction in young people; Hawaii Island Mayor Mitch Roth contributed an op-ed calling on lawmakers to vote to pass legislation protecting local youth from tobacco and nicotine products; and Moani Yamanoha, a youth council member, contributed two letters speaking on behalf of Hawaii’s youth.

The effort succeeded. In May 2023, the state legislature passed SB 975, taxing and regulating e-cigarettes like other tobacco products, and Governor Josh Green signed it into law on June 6; the bill will take effect in January 2024.

Congratulations to the minds that brought this impactful and important work to life.