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For this discussion, I chose the "Real Cost Campaign."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched  the Real Cost Campaign since 2014. In 2022, the FDA presented the Real Cost E-Cigarette Prevention campaign under the main campaign. Watch one of the last campaign videos. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHcJ53IAVqM&ab_channel=TheRealCostLinks to an external site.

The target audience: The campaign targets Middle and high schoolers (youth ages 12 to 17).

The objective: Educate youth about the health consequences and risks of addiction from using e-cigarettes.

Some potential SMART objectives that could apply to the campaign:

· Increase the number of quitSTART App downloads by 20% in 2023.

· To reach 1,000 middle and high schoolers who are trained by counselors through an online chat to help youth quit by the end of 2023.

· To have 1,000 middle and high schoolers participate in quizzes and surveys related to understanding vaping addiction By the end of May 2024.

Indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of this campaign.

· The indicators related to the campaign content on social media platforms such as views, comments, engagement, and likes' rates. “Across social media platforms, the FDA has engaged teen audiences with more than 578,000 likes, 89,000 shares, and 31,000 comments” (FDA, 2019).

· Evaluating the level of awareness before and after the campaign through qualitative research.

“Since the agency’s work began driving teens who want to quit vaping to Teen.SmokeFree.gov, total interactions from all users with the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Service telephone and online chat services have increased by more than 250%” (FDA, 2019).

· The number of youth who participated in campaign activities.

· The number of downloaded quit apps.

The cost savings of stopping smoking. “The campaign had a cost savings of $180 for every dollar of the nearly $250 million invested in the first two years of the campaign” (FDA, 2019).

What are the strengths and challenges of the campaign?

· Campaign’s Strengths:

· Creative videos that attract the target audience

· Ongoing campaigns under the real cost message since 2014

· Conducting research on an ongoing basis

· Remarkable success statistics

· Partnerships with educational and health institutions

· Campaign’s Challenges:

· The long-term effectiveness

· Peer influence

· Creating content that affects teen's emotions, holds their attention, and persuades them to take action. 

· Suggestions:

I believe the FDA is really doing great in the campaign, and its ongoing annual campaigns since it started are evidence of this success. I suggest the FDA keeps doing more research and creating creative and emotional content to attract teens' attention. It should also keep using media channels favored by the target audience. I hope such a campaign will expand its mission and deliver its messages globally.