Featured Project - American Cancer Society
12.30.2009
In:
Healthcare / Life Sciences,
Public Relations,
Public Affairs
Each year thousands of North Carolinians die or suffer from debilitating illnesses resulting from secondhand smoke. The healthcare costs for treating these illnesses total nearly $290 million in our state. But the roots of tobacco are long and deep in North Carolina, and for many years political leaders were hesitant to support any measure that would challenge the industry so deeply rooted in North Carolina's cultural and economic traditions. Tobacco's clout was also strengthened by the state's fierce regard for personal liberty, including the right to smoke and the freedom to make decisions involving property rights.
The American Cancer Society engaged Capstrat at the start of the 2009 legislative session to provide media and public relations in support of legislation banning smoking from indoor workplaces. Our challenge: help change public opinion, counter opposition, use the media in our favor and gain legislative support for a smoking ban.
Just two years prior, the public health community suffered a difficult defeat of similar legislation. This time, we advised turning the state's respect for personal liberty against the opposition. Doesn't the right to breathe safe, smoke-free air trump the right to smoke? And shouldn't business owners put the health of non-smoking workers and patrons ahead of the convenience of smokers?
The public health community coalesced under the banner of the N.C. Alliance for Health, which included the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and other health advocates. Capstrat supported the Alliance education and grassroots advocacy through media relations, advertising and message development.
To start, we helped refine messages to resonate with the general public and differentiate the current campaign from past efforts. Common sense tells us nobody has the right to harm another's health. From the outset, the campaign was focused on this doctrine of fairness and the right of all North Carolinians to breathe safe, smoke-free air.
We communicated regularly with health and political reporters on the complex legislation, building relationships that would pay dividends later in the campaign. Rather than pitching pointed advocacy, we made the N.C. Alliance for Health available as a resource to reporters attempting to navigate the nuances of the bill and its circuitous procedural path through the General Assembly. Highly credible data and ready access to our cadre of respected health leaders blunted the impact of pro-smoking forces and their often-flawed arguments.
At each step in the legislative process — through every committee, vote and amendment — we provided reporters with no-spin updates on the evolving legislation. Coalition partners were provided messages and talking points, as well as all the tools needed to easily submit opinion pieces to newspapers in key legislators' districts. Supportive editorials appeared in newspapers around the state, including cities like Greensboro and Winston-Salem, with long-standing ties to tobacco even among the local media. In the weeks leading up to critical votes, editorials featured quotes and data supplied through our efforts, and on numerous occasions our leaders were invited to submit their own opinion-editorials. In just more than a two month period, more appeared in North Carolina newspapers.
In two instances before significant votes, the Alliance ran ads in the hometown newspapers of undecided legislators. The ads successfully convinced constituents to make their support known to legislators in advance of the vote.
In the end, the N.C. Alliance for Health and its partner organizations built public support for strong, comprehensive smoke-free legislation and scored a resounding and historic win. The legislation banning smoking from restaurants and bars throughout the state was signed into law by Gov. Bev Perdue on May 19, 2009, taking effect on January 2, 2010.
