One of the provisions of the government’s multibillion-dollar settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998 established a nonprofit organization with the mission to counteract tobacco marketing and reduce youth tobacco use. That mission became a reality in 2000, when the American Legacy Foundation launched its antismoking/anti–tobacco-industry ad campaign called “Truth.”

Working with a coalition of ad agencies, a group of teenage consultants, and a $300 million budget, the foundation created a series of stylish, gritty print and television ads that deconstruct the images that have long been associated with cigarette ads—macho horse country, carefree beach life, sexy bar scenes, and daring skydives. These ads show teens dragging, piling, or heaving body bags across the beach or onto a horse, and holding up signs that say “What if cigarette ads told the Truth?” Other ads show individuals with lung cancer (“I worked where people smoked. I chose not to. But I got lung cancer anyway”) or illustrate how many people are indirectly touched by tobacco deaths (“Yeah, my grandfather died April last year”).

The TV and print ads prominently reference the foundation’s Web site, www.thetruth.com, which offers statistics, discussion forums, and outlets for teen creativity. For example, the site provides facts about addiction (more than 80 percent of all adult smokers started smoking before they turned eighteen) and tobacco money (tobacco companies make $1.8 billion from underage sales), and urges site visitors to organize the facts in their own customized folders. By 2007, with its jarring messages and cross-media platform, the “Truth” anti-tobacco campaign was recognized by 80 percent of teens and was ranked in the Top 10 “most memorable teen brands.”³⁶