The Multnomah County Health Department has launched a $600,000 campaign to counter record-setting smoking and opioid abuse rates, Public Health Director Tricia Tillman told the board of commissioners during a Dec. 8 briefing on the initiative.
“Large industries with significant marketing budgets outspend our efforts,” she told commissioners. “Big Tobacco’’ spends $1 million on advertising every hour, while the soda and energy drink industry spends $2 million a day.
“They do this because they know it works,” Tillman said.
The county’s public health division this summer partnered with Univision, Lamar, Comcast and Clear Channel to launch a one-year, $1 million ad campaign for two-thirds the cost.
The first advertisements to go live in June warned of the health risks of sugary drinks. They showed a man downing 16 packets of sugar in a diner, and a child chugging from a bottle of bright blue energy drink.
“It was a huge success,” said Adelle Adams, a program specialist with the county Health Department.
The campaign’s second phase launched this fall emphasizes the dangers of social smoking, flavored tobacco and smoking a hookah. Most teens who smoked tobacco opt for flavors. A statewide teen survey shows that one-in-four teens who smoked for the first time said they did so using a hookah. An hour of smoking a hookah delivers the nicotine, smoke and associated risks as smoking 100 cigarettes.
“Given these alarming numbers, we developed the campaign with a primary audience of teens and parents,” Adams said.
The county worked with Portland-based artist Lizeth Niño, whose drawings of cigarette-stuffed mouths grace billboards and buses in the Portland metro area.
The next phase of the campaign will launch in early 2016, and focus on recreational use of marijuana. The county’s marijuana messages dovetail that of an upcoming campaign by the Oregon Health Authority. The division will also feature the dangers of abusing prescription pain relievers. A recent study by the National Safety Council shows people don’t understand the risks of opiate addiction; meanwhile, Oregon ranks second in the nation for illegal use of prescription painkillers. And, two people die a week of opiate overdoses in Multnomah County.
“Public education is critical,” said Tillman. “Given the significant investment by the industry and the cost of intervention, public health education is essential to raise awareness, share science and reinforce decisions to make healthy choices.”