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Our Impact

Our work has prevented millions of young people from becoming smokers, including 2.5 million between 2015 and 2018 alone. We believe a culture where young people reject smoking, vaping, and nicotine can be achieved within this generation — and we won’t stop until we create a future where commercial tobacco use and nicotine addiction are a thing of the past. This is how we’re doing.

Youth smoking rates graph

Saving lives through the truth campaign

​truth is our national tobacco prevention counter-marketing campaign. It speaks to young people on their terms, through the channels they trust.

​Explore the truth campaign

450K

In just its first four years, truth was directly responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke.

5M

Since 2000, the truth tour has reached more than 5 million young people and given out over 1 million pieces of truth merch.

2.5M

truth has prevented millions of young people from becoming smokers, including 2.5 million between 2015 and 2018 alone.

Empowering communities and young people to spread the truth about tobacco

Mary Louise Long

It was really fun to get to see all the different experiences that truth® really opens you up to by being an Ambassador. I'm very thankful to Truth Initiative for letting me participate in this program, and, honestly, for giving me a platform to share this type of information.

To reach youth that have either recently quit nicotine or are struggling to quit, Mary promoted the importance of self-care to her target audience at Arizona State University Public Relations Student Society of America. Students attended and participated in a skincare workshop where they were able to make their own face masks and learn about the harms of tobacco use. Her presentation will continue to be shared annually during ASU’s PRSSA chapter meetings to ensure that young adults are given the facts about the effects of nicotine use.

2021–22 truth® Ambassador

Mary Louise Long | Arizona

Annika Bennion Headshot

I had a lot of fun as an ambassador. I got to see all sorts of different ways to approach this issue and I was really stunned by the creativity and the diverse perspectives.

Annika, who is also known as Miss Montana’s Outstanding Teen, created a 2-month nationwide digital advertising campaign to connect teens and young adults to This is Quitting. She also developed and recorded eight anti-tobacco ads that were broadcasted across 17 radio stations over 10 months in Montana.

2021–22 truth® Ambassador and former Miss Montana’s Outstanding Teen

Annika Bennion | Montana

Kristen Reid

I’m so happy that I was able to find a platform that can I connect with and that I'm passionate about. One thing that I absolutely learned is that if you're not passionate about what you're doing, don't do it. I've had great mentors and fellow ambassadors who have been amazing.

Kristen Reid created a Friendship Bench on campus to encourage student-to-student conversations about mental health and facilitate peer-to-peer support networks. The school will continue to create additional Friendship Benches on campus

2021–22 truth® Ambassador

Kristen Reid | Florida

Helping colleges and universities quit tobacco

​Ninety-nine percent of smokers try their first cigarette before age 26. We partner with colleges to stop young adults from using tobacco before they start, awarding grants to institutions to adopt a 100% tobacco/vape-free campus policy.

​View grants and scholarships

Winning awards for effectiveness and creativity

2023 Effie Awards

Grand Effie

Depression Stick + Breath of Stress Air

Logo for the ANA in-house excellence awards
2023 ANA In-House Excellence Awards

Branded Content

Quitters

2022 Fast Company Most Innovative

10 Most Innovative Not-for-Profit organizations of 2022