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  1. The Real Cost Campaign

The Real Cost E-Cigarette Prevention Campaign

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Background

Youth e-cigarette use remains an ongoing public health concern. In 2022, more than 2.5 million U.S. middle and high school students currently used e-cigarettes1

Our Goal: Educate youth about the dangers of e-cigarette use. The campaign addresses the “cost-free” mentality in middle and high schoolers with messages about the health consequences and risk of addiction from using e-cigarettes


Campaign Research

How Research Guides Our Campaign  

The Real Cost campaign conducts research with teens on an ongoing basis. Our research provides key insights about how potential campaign advertising (ads) resonate with members of our intended audiences. Campaign research consists of both testing ads before they are aired (also called formative research) and assessing the impact of the ads after they are released (also called evaluation research).

Through formative research, we continually refine our understanding of the campaign’s intended audience, stay up to date on the most effective ways to reach them, and identify and test prevention ads. Formative research includes:

  • Conducting focus groups and surveys to gather audience insights and understand which ads members of our intended audience find understandable, believable, and motivating
  • Reviewing data from large national surveys, sales data, social media comments and trends and other sources to better understand teens, their media behaviors, and their tobacco attitudes.  We use this information to develop and refine ads and strategies for our campaigns.

Evaluation research allows us to see how exposure to the campaign ads might change someone’s perceptions about tobacco.  Evaluation research includes:

  • Conducting surveys with teens to understand who has seen our ads and the impact that the ads have on knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about tobacco. Some of these surveys are conducted multiple times over several months with the same group of participants
  • Evaluating our media strategy by conducting surveys at one point in time to assess how many teens have seen our ads and are aware of The Real Cost brand

In addition to sharing our research findings through webinars and other public forums, our formative and evaluation research is often published in peer-review journals. To read publications about CTP campaigns, see Awards and Recognition.


Our Approach

“The Real Cost” e-cigarette prevention campaign uses a variety of marketing tactics and creative advertising to reach its audience. Advertising and prevention materials are delivered across teen-relevant communication channels, including: 

  • Television ads
  • Online video ads
  • Social media 
  • Media partnerships with youth-focused content, such as Marvel Comics and Rick and Morty
  • “The Real Cost” campaign’s youth-focused website
  • Posters for high schools nationwide 

Campaign Resources

Quitting Resources for Youth

FDA partners with the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Smokefree.gov initiative to provide youth with resources for quitting e-cigarettes. Resources and information on Teen.smokefree.gov/therealcost are designed specifically for youth audiences by cessation experts. “The Real Cost” campaign connects youth to these resources on social media and various digital platforms (Spotify, Pandora, Wattpad, etc.). Some of the quit tools and resources include: 

Vaping Prevention and Education Resource Center 

Youth on bleachers vaping

The FDA’s Vaping Prevention and Education Resource Center is an online hub with free science-based, standards-mapped lesson plans and materials teachers can use to help students understand the dangers associated with vaping and nicotine addiction. The resource center features numerous age-appropriate, cross-curricular resources for teachers to promote learning and begin having open conversations with youth about vaping.

In addition to content designed for teachers, there are also materials for parents and teens. All content on the resource center is free, easy to navigate, and optimized for each audience. These resources are also available in Spanish.

Visit the Vaping Resource Center


Free Tobacco and Vaping Prevention and Cessation Materials at FDA's Tobacco Education Resource Library

Free Materials - Learn how to request materials from the FDA.

FDA has educational materials and resources for local organizations on youth tobacco prevention and adult cessation efforts: 


Campaign Ads

Video


Awards and Recognition

  • Effie Awards
    • 2022: Bronze Effie in the Disease Awareness and Education category
    • 2021: Bronze Effie in the Disease Awareness and Education category
  • ARF David Ogilvy Awards 
    • 2021: Gold award for “The Facts about Vaping are Scary Enough” campaign ad
  • Publications
    1. Roditis, M. L., Dineva, A., Smith, A., Walker, M., Delahanty, J., D'lorio, E., & Holtz, K. D. (2020). Reactions to electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) prevention messages: results from qualitative research used to inform FDA’s first youth ENDS prevention campaign. Tobacco Control, 29(5), 510-515.\
    2. MacMonegle A, Bennett M, Speer J, et al. Evaluating the Real Cost Digital and Social Media Campaign: Longitudinal Effects of Campaign Exposure on E-cigarette Risk Perceptions. Manuscript submitted for publication. 2023.


 
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