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   In This Issue                       February 2014

  



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A Note From Robin - 50 Years Later, Tobacco Remains Our Mount Everestanotefromrobin

  

We've had a jam-packed February, progressing at full speed towards our Generation Free goal. This month marks the remarkable announcement from CVS Caremark that they will stop selling tobacco products in their 7,600 stores around the country beginning October 1st. This could cost the company as much as $1 Billion, but they have wisely decided to put their customer's health ahead of corporate profits. We are now reaching out to other pharmacies to follow CVS Caremark's suit

 

The FDA's new ad campaign, The Real Cost, launched, with bold ads targeting 12-17 years olds. 2014 is truly shaping up to be The Year of Tobacco - with the CDC and FDA in the marketplace in a truly unprecedented way. We will of course join the chorus this summer as we bring truth� back to air. It's been said that a "rising tide lifts all boats," so working in concert with our federal partners, we aim to kick-start another dramatic decline in smoking rates.

 

The CDC launched the third phase of the successful Tips from Former Smokers campaign, with the moving and sadly - final - Terrie Hall ad. We're reminded that her legacy is one of powerful motivation to smokers to muster the will to quit.

 

February was also the month of love and to celebrate Valentine's Day, Legacy showed smokers the love with a YouTube campaign, #LoveYourQuitter. Too often smoking is labeled as just a nasty habit instead of the deadly addiction that it is. As we all know, quitting smoking is no easy feat, it takes an average of 11 quit attempts until many smokers are able to quit for good. What we can all do is support our smokers and show them the love and encouragement they need to win their battle. If you have a smoker in your life, show them some love today, and together we can build a world where anyone can quit.

 

I'll close with a moment in truth trivia - it was in July, 2003, that the iconic 1200 ad began airing nationally. Fast forward to recent news from Louisville, Kentucky - where 1200 was filmed - the Metro Council there introduced a ban on e-cigarettes and hookahs for minors (read more here). What a difference a decade makes!

 

 

Robin Koval

President and CEO, Legacy 

  

 

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CVS Caremark's Decision to End Tobacco Sales Should Inspire Other Retailers to Put Public Health Before Bottom LineCVS

 

On the heels of the 50th Anniversary of the Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, CVS Caremark has stepped forward in a highly competitive industry to do the right thing and stop selling the most lethal consumer product on the market today - tobacco. This bold move sets them apart from other companies doing 'business as usual', and we applaud them for it. 

 

With 480,000 Americans losing their lives annually to tobacco, this new business decision is a watershed moment in the pharmacy business, and an action public health leaders like Legacy hope will quickly be emulated by all businesses that have pharmacies on-site, including national grocery store chains that purport to encourage health and wellness but ironically continue to sell products resulting in the number one preventable cause of death. To read more on CVS Caremark's decision, read Legacy's statement  here.

 

To further the benefits of this brave move by CVS, Legacy, along with 25 other public health groups issued an open letter to other drug stores calling on them to follow CVS and end tobacco sales. A similar move by other pharmacies would make tobacco products less available, and ultimately end the tobacco epidemic for good.

 

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Sunny Times Ahead for truth Telling: Legacy Announces New Creative Agency PartnerSunny

 

Following a review that kicked off last July, Legacy has found a new creative agency partner in 72andSunny, a full-service, modern communications agency with offices in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. 72andSunny creates cultural impact on behalf of brands. They were named "Agency of the Year" for the past two years by Ad Age and AdWeek. 

 

The selection of a new creative agency concludes a periodic review process that ensures Legacy's public education campaigns are benefitting from the best thinking in the marketplace and that all are assets are used to their fullest advantage. In November, the foundation announced that New York-based MediaCom had been selected as its new media planning and buying agency. MediaCom will help power paid and owned media efforts intended to engage the truth audience.

 

Over the next three years, Legacy will devote new and significant resources to truth, to help augment the important work being conducted by the federal government in both youth prevention and adult cessation. This national paid advertising will supplement truth's extensive grassroots and digital outreach -- 'connecting all dots' with the youth audience that the campaign strives to reach in strategic ways. Legacy and its new partners will work together to achieve the bold goal to end the tobacco epidemic and create "Generation Free", the first smoke-free generation.Read the full press release here. 

 

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Poignant PSA Anchors New Round of the CDC's Proven-Effective "Tips From Former Smokers" Campaign CDC

 

Terrie Hall, a former smoker who dedicated her life to educating the public on the dangers of smoking, filmed two final public service announcements before she tragically passed away last year.  Both will begin airing nationally this week as part of the 2014 Tips From Former Smokers (Tips) campaign. Filmed just a few days before Terrie passed away from cancer at age 53, she hoped that if her story could convince just one teen from starting to smoke or motivate one adult to quit, her battle would have been worth it.

 

This innovative campaign puts a face on the issue of tobacco, making it a human story rather than a statistic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reminds us that the disease risks associated with tobacco consumption impact the people who surround us each day. To watch Terrie's last public service announcements, as well as other new spots, visit the CDC's website here.

 

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FDA Urges Youth to Realize "The Real Cost" of SmokingFDA

 

Legacy applauds the FDA's new national public education campaign, called "The Real Cost", aimed at preventing youth tobacco use among young people between the ages of 12 and 17. The program is the FDA's first comprehensive tobacco education campaign, using authority granted to the federal agency under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

 

The tobacco industry spends $8.8 billion per year, or $24 million a day, marketing its products. While cigarette marketing is currently off-limits to youth, emerging products like electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are on the rise, according to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released last November. These alarming statistics demonstrate that more powerful and effective youth-prevention campaigns are essential to the health and well-being of young people in the United States.

 

In conjunction with the FDA's new program, Legacy's own truth youth smoking prevention campaign will be amplifying its efforts this summer. In today's cluttered media landscape, Legacy realizes the importance of increased investment in paid advertising to reaching a national audience. Legacy's enhanced truth campaign will augment the important work being done by the FDA in youth prevention. To watch commercials from the FDA's recent campaign, visit The Real Cost website here.

 

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Legacy Launches Valentine's Day Campaign to #LoveYourQuitterLoveYourQuitter

 

Too often, people think of the smoker in their life as someone who simply can't kick a "nasty habit". Unfortunately, that assumption is dead-wrong. Smoking is an addiction that most smokers desperately want to overcome. But it takes an average of 11 attempts before they succeed. Smokers, and the people who love them, need to know this fact. When smokers have the emotional support of their loved ones, they have a better chance of quitting - however many times it takes them to quit for good.

#LoveYourQuitter
#LoveYourQuitter

 

To that end, Legacy decided to show smokers some love this Valentine's Day, and released a video (embedded below) as well as a hashtag, #LoveYourQuitter to encourage others to spread the love. Legacy believes that together, by supporting smokers and encouraging quit attempts, we truly can work towards building the next Smoke-Free Generation.

 

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Spotlight: 2014-2015 Legacy Youth Activist Isra AhmadIsra

 

Meet one of the four 2014-2015 Legacy Youth Activism Fellows, Isra Ahmad. Isra's fight against tobacco is deeply connected to the pervasive use of tobacco within her Pakistani culture.  Paan, a South Asian tobacco product, is widely accepted and used within her own family. Isra recently graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science in Health Science and plans to pursue her Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology/Biostatistics in the near future. 

2014-2015 Legacy Youth Activism Fellow Isra Ahmad

 

She currently serves on the state level at the Youth Advisory Board of Campuses Organized & United for Good Health (COUGH) advocating for tobacco-free policy change at the California State University system. She is the Former President and Founder of the COUGH chapter at San Jose State University, where, as a result of her efforts, the university's Academic Senate has recommended a 100 percent smoke-free campus policy. Isra believes that life experiences from others around her can serve as an invaluable tool for action and change, and looks forward to the opportunities for sharing and learning as part of the Youth Activism Fellowship.   

 

Isra was recently featured in her hometown newspaper, The Milpitas Post where she talks more about the local project that she will be involved in. To learn more about Isra, as well as the Legacy Youth Activism Fellowship, visit the website here.

 

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Study Shows Link Between Smoking and Breast CancerBreastCancer

 

The 2014 Surgeon General's Report linked liver and colorectal cancers to smoking. Just a few weeks later, a study published in Cancer, the peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, shows a link between smoking and estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer in women. The study, conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, shows that women who were current or recent smokers, and had started smoking before their first birth are at higher risk for breast cancer. Furthermore, the study suggests that smoking may actually contribute to breast cancer initiation.

 

This study is ground-breaking because up until now, the link between breast cancer and smoking had been controversial. Studies done in this field had not found enough evidence to conclude a causal link between smoking and breast cancer. The tobacco industry spends close to $24 million a day on marketing its products, and women are among the many targets of that advertising. We must strive to work against that ceaseless promotion, and protect our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and friends from yet another cancer linked to tobacco use. 

 

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Only One in Ten People Struggling With Addictions Get HelpCASAAddiction

 

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has created a heartfelt animated short reminding us that addiction is a deadly disease, made complex by structural changes in the brain that lead to compulsive substance abuse. The number of people older than the age of 12 with addictions, be it to alcohol, nicotine or even prescription drugs, outnumber patients of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. The video reminds us that addiction is treatable and manageable by seeking help from medical and other health professionals, but only one in ten people who need treatment actually receive it. 

 

That's Right. Addiction is a Disease.
That's Right. Addiction is a Disease.

We, at Legacy, are reminded constantly of just how challenging and dangerous nicotine addiction is. Once ingested, nicotine takes only seven seconds to reach the brain and it too changes the structure of the brain, creating an addiction that is as powerful as cocaine or heroin. To learn more about nicotine's effect on the brain, watch a Legacy- produced video on this subject here

 

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TOP LINKS

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Sex, Jobs, and $64K: The Impact of a Pack of Cigarettes

 

The New Health Risks of Smoking: The Diane Rehm Show

 

CVS's Bold Move to End Tobacco Sales

 

FDA Launches Bold Counter-Marketing Program Aimed at Teens

 

Pharmacies Ending Sales of Tobacco Products Helps to De-normalize Smoking

 

Deadline Upcoming: Apply for the FDA Tobacco Regulatory Science Fellowship

 

This Valentine's Day, Legacy Asks You to #LoveYourQuitter

 

FDA Orders Removal of 4 Bidi Cigarette Brands From Shelves

 

E-Cigarettes: The Hot Debate

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                Legacy is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. 
               � 2012 American Legacy Foundation
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