Can hip-hop help get minority youth to avoid smoking? The FDA is hoping so. Its “Fresh Empire” campaign is the FDA’s first public education campaign designed to reduce and prevent tobacco use among at-risk multicultural teens who “identify with the hip-hop culture.”
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According to the Office of Minority Health (OMH), more than 4 million minority youth smoke or experiment with smoking, and research suggests that those in the hip-hop crowd are more likely to smoke than are other young people. With the tagline “Keep It Fresh,” the campaign aims to associate living “tobacco free” with desirable hip-hop lifestyles. The goal is to keep the campaign “authentic through a peer-to-peer approach,” but the FDA is also encouraging public health organizations and interested adults to share the information about the campaign through the FDA’s social media channels, such as @FDATobacco (https://twitter.com/FDATobacco).
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The campaign will complement the FDA’s general youth education campaign, “The Real Cost.”