How helping teens find their voice helped New Jersey fight a burgeoning health crisis.
With vapes shaped like candy rolls and flavors to match, teen vaping skyrocketed — the FDA reported more than 3.6 million middle and high school students were vaping by 2018. The New Jersey Department of Health hired Princeton Partners to reverse the trend.
Big Tobacco found a new way in.
Changes in attitudes and decades of anti-smoking efforts had significantly reduced teen cigarette use. But that didn't stop the tobacco industry from finding a new way in. With vapes shaped like candy rolls and flavors to match, teen vaping skyrocketed.
Nobody likes being played.
Teens often picked up vaping because of peer pressure, but they reacted with real anger when they realized Big Tobacco was engineering the trend. That resistance became our opening.
A rallying cry, not a lecture.
Vibrant graphics and direct, non-judgmental language framed vaping as Big Tobacco's latest attempt to hook a new generation — designed to spark dialogue, not shut it down.
Space for the creative.
An extraordinary saturation rate.
In just 90 days, the campaign delivered 13.9 million impressions against a target audience of only 400,000 New Jersey teens — an extraordinary saturation rate for a public health effort.
90 days. Statewide reach.
Ready to accelerate?
Tell us your goals. We'll craft the plan.