Through the use of participatory training sessions and social media communications designed to appeal to 15-25 year olds, the goal is to help them to learn for themselves about the effects and impact of smoking and to adopt healthy behaviours. Because people are most likely to begin to use tobacco as adolescents, it is especially important to inform young people about the harms of tobacco use before they start. Health warnings can be conveyed using many different methods, including warning labels on tobacco packaging and anti-tobacco mass media campaigns.
This project complements Turkish MoH’s smoking cessation campaign, targeting 13,500 young people through the use of a wide range of communications tools and education training sessions.
A pool of young people has been recruited from within the TOG network of schools and universities to act as ambassadors and peer educators for the anti-tobacco campaign. This approach follows the aim of positioning youth as spokespersons for an anti-tobacco campaign, the social media campaign will also encourage young people to become anti-tobacco bloggers.
Research shows that anti-smoking information should be prepared and presented in ways that address the needs of young people, and the reasons they smoke, rather than to persuade by attempts to scare.