By Michael McNutt
Capitol Bureau
The state today kicks off its first anti-tobacco campaign produced specifically for Oklahoma.
The $1.5 million advertising campaign, “Tobacco stops with me,” includes television, radio, print and billboard advertising. It also includes a Web site, said Tracey Strader, executive director of the Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, which is paying for the effort.

The money will pay for about six months of advertising, she said. The campaign is planned to be a three-year effort, first focusing on the problem of tobacco use and then taking a look at solutions.
“The campaign is about the statewide movement to reduce the tobacco problem,” said Kenneth Rowe, chairman of the trust’s board of directors.

“It will provide a public call to action for all Oklahomans to make a difference by quitting or never starting tobacco use, and by getting involved to help make Oklahoma a tobacco-free and prosperous place to live,” he said.

The Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust was established through a constitutional amendment approved by Oklahoma voters in 2000. It uses tobacco settlement funds for tobacco prevention and other programs to improve health.

It has taken the trust’s board of directors five years to have enough earnings on hand to pay for a thorough advertising campaign, Strader said.

The board for this fiscal year, which started July 1, has about $14.6 million to spend. Nearly all of it comes from interest from the tobacco settlement endowment. Previously, the board, which had only about $500,000 in its first year of operation, has used advertising produced by other states.

“They weren’t quite a good fit for Oklahomans,” Strader said. “A lot of ads have been produced in Chicago or New York City or California, and it doesn’t look like our state and the people don’t sometimes sound or look like we do. Sometimes the messages are good, but may not fully resonate. We wanted a campaign that would really speak to Oklahomans.”

The new TV and radio ads will begin airing today, Strader said. A Web site, www.stopswithme.com, also is scheduled to be launched today, she said.

The Web site will have information that includes how to quit, how to support someone who is trying to quit and what can be done to make Oklahoma a healthier place to live.

Visitors to the site also can post their experiences with tobacco. Information also will be available about the board’s telephone counseling service. The Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline is a free service available by calling (800) 784-8669. More than 12,000 Oklahomans have used the service to kick their tobacco addictions the past four years.

The campaign will be evaluated independently by the University of Oklahoma College of Public Health. The state Health Department is providing technical assistance to the campaign.

Strader said the tobacco industry is spending hundreds of millions each year to promote tobacco use in Oklahoma.

“We’re all paying the price,” she said. “Tobacco is Oklahoma’s leading cause of preventable death, resulting in thousands of lives lost and more than $2.7 billion in health care costs and lost productivity each year. It is time we all say ‘Tobacco stops with me.’ ”