Tips Campaign Matte Article for Asian American Communities
This matte article about the Tips From Former Smokers® campaign is ready for use. It is available for journalists, bloggers, other members of the media, and organizations’ newsletters.
CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers Campaign Airing a New Round of Hard-Hitting Commercials
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tips From Former Smokers® (Tips®) campaign returns with new hard-hitting ads. The campaign features real people impacted by the serious long-term health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke exposure. The Tips campaign also tells the stories of family members who take care of a loved one living with a smoking-related disease.
Many of this year’s new ads include messaging about the harms of menthol cigarettes. Tobacco companies add menthol to commercial tobacco products to make them seem less harsh and more appealing to people who have never used cigarettes. People who smoke menthol cigarettes can be less likely to successfully quit than people who smoke non-menthol cigarettes.
Tobacco companies aggressively market menthol-flavored tobacco products to different groups of people. This marketing contributes to certain groups being more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than other groups.
Young people, racial and ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with a low income, and people with mental health conditions are more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than other population groups.
Smoking increases the risk for cancer, heart disease, and stroke, which are leading causes of death for Asian Americans. While cigarette smoking among Asian Americans has fallen in recent years—13.3% in 2005 to 8.0% in 2020— smoking remains a preventable cause of disease, disability, and death.
Rico F., featured in the Tips campaign, started smoking at age 14. He learned he had cancer at age 45. Rico wanted to quit so that he could enjoy a healthy life with his family. Since quitting smoking for good, Rico, a cancer survivor, shares his story to help others who smoke to quit. Rico feels blessed to be alive to spend time with his family and watch his children finish college. He believes that it’s never too late to quit smoking. “As a former smoker, I know how hard it is to quit. Addiction is a very difficult battle to win, but it can be done!” Rico said.
The new campaign ads air beginning February 5, 2024, and run through September 22, 2024.
“The Tips ads show the challenges real people face every day as a result of smoking in a way that statistics cannot,” said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, PhD, MPH, Director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “We are grateful to all of the people featured in the Tips campaign for sharing their personal stories about how smoking has negatively impacted their lives. By providing information, resources, and motivation, the Tips campaign has helped save lives.”
CDC launched the first federally funded national tobacco education campaign, Tips, in March 2012. From 2012–2018, CDC estimates that approximately one million people successfully quit smoking and millions more tried to quit because of the Tips campaign.
Quitting Help
CDC has created additional print ads in three Asian languages—Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. These ads encourage people who smoke to quit and direct them to the Asian Smokers’ Quitline.* Callers can receive free help quitting from coaches who are fluent in Asian languages. The quitline also offers a free two-week supply of nicotine patches for callers who want them.
Following are the toll-free numbers that appear in these ads:
- Mandarin and Cantonese*: 1-800-838-8917
- Korean*: 1-800-556-5564
- Vietnamese*: 1-800-778-8440
- English: 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669)
*The Asian Smokers’ Quitline is operated by the University of California, San Diego.
For more information about the Tips campaign and resources for quitting smoking, visit CDC.gov/tips.
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