‘truth’ Tour Gears Up Edgy Giveaways
The “truth tour” has stockpiled a cache of hip premiums to spread its anti-smoking message to teens.
The 50-market summer tour, now in its seventh year, is part of the American Legacy Foundation’s “truth” campaign that uses tobacco company’s own words and ideas to encourage teens to snub smoking.
Because it aims to reach risk-taking teens most likely to take up tobacco, “truth” has to be sure its premiums hit the mark with culturally cutting-edge teens.
This year’s line up includes argyle socks, iPod covers, and graffiti-style iron-ons that let kids design their own T-shirts.
The designs are done by graphic designers Justin Fines (known as “Demo”), Dan Funderburgh, and FUSE Green. Each design fits the theme “irreplaceable truth” and incorporates a “truth” fact, gleaned from tobacco marketing documents. Kids who visit truth trucks get a sheet of transfers and a blank white T-shirt.
“The designs are so cool that we get a lot of media coverage from edgy magazines,” says Joe Martyak, ALF executive VP-marketing, communications and public policy. “The beauty of it is that these are cool images to wear, but they also spread the message about tobacco use and about the industry.”
“truth” was even woven into the Atari video game Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure thanks to ALF’s past use of graffiti artists’ work.
This year truth piggybacks three tours: The Vans Warped Tour (45 stops) and The AND1 Mix Tape Tour (25 stops) as well as the CosmoGIRL! Beach House Tour (4 stops). All told, the tour’s two iconic orange trucks will reach 800,000 teens and interact with about half of them through DJ scratching lessons and games that give away premiums as prizes (see PROMO’s May 31 e-report on Event Marketing.)
Washington, DC-based ALF tests its marketing ideas, including premiums, with focus groups of kids 12 to 17. “These kids are very conscious of the truth campaign, especially in contrast to other [anti-smoking] campaigns,” including those of tobacco companies, said Joseph Califano Jr., president of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare).
Last year, the “truth tour” gave away orange flip flops with dual messages on the bottom of each shoe reflecting what tobacco marketers said, then what they actually did. The bottom left a “truth” imprint on the ground. For Martyak, it was an ideal premium: “It had the messaging, it was symbolic of the issue, and it left the message behind.”
Plus, flip-flops are cool. Just ask a teenager.
