Mobilizing school children in “No Smoking, Be Charming!” media campaign in Taiwan

Abstract

Background and challenges to implementation: In Taiwan, government's generous reimbursement to hospitals and clinics for providing smoking cessation treatments, plus a very successful “Quit & Win” nationwide campaign, have helped bring down adult smoking rate recently. However, a great concern is rising as youth smoking rate has not been decreased. With influx of e-cigarettes and other cheap tobacco products, as well very aggressive tobacco industries' promotion strategies targeting at youth, smoking among Taiwan youth has become a threat. The urgent need to help youth to resist pressure of smoking is apparent. Intervention or response: In light of this, John Tung Foundation developed a media campaign initiative aimed at engaging school children on building capacity to resist smoking. This proposal promptly received support from Taiwan government and NGOs. At the initiation phase, a very popular actress, Ning Chang, was recruited to play role of “Smoke-Free Dancer” in a video that messaging “No Smoking, Be Charming!”. The beautifully made video were then widely shown in television and circulated through website, Facebook, and blogs. Thereafter, videos, pamphlets, placates, posters were distributed to schools and health stations. Billboards were displayed in over 4,600 places in cities and towns. Schools were engaged to run smoking education programs to raise health literacy on label reading and inoculate no-smoking capacity. Classes were encouraged to post creative anti-smoking campaign photos on Facebook Fan Page. Students from 416 classes, 153 schools in over 20 cities participated. Results and lessons learnt: A national sample of 4,642 K-12 and college students were surveyed that showed 95% approval rating. This project showed very promising results in mobilizing students to be no-smoking campaign crusaders. Conclusions and key recommendations: The project seems useful to lead youth to temper their smoking intention and help created a smoke-free atmosphere in schools.