World No Tobacco Day 2020

Protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use

Every four seconds, tobacco takes another life. Decades of the tobacco industry’s deception and devious tactics to hook generations of users to nicotine and tobacco have driven a global epidemic wherein over one billion people worldwide use tobacco and over 8 million people die from tobacco use or exposure to second-hand smoke every year. With every death of a tobacco user, the multi-billion-dollar industry must recruit a replacement customer and further expand its market to ensure sustainability, hence keeping its business alive.

For World No Tobacco Day 2020, WHO is launching a counter-marketing campaign in response to the tobacco and related industries’ systematic, aggressive, and sustained tactics to hook a new generation of users. The global campaign will debunk myths and expose devious tactics employed by these industries. It will provide young people with the knowledge required to easily detect industry manipulation and equip them with the tools to rebuff such tactics, thereby empowering young people to stand up against them. WHO calls on all young people to join the fight to become a tobacco-free generation. This campaign will reinforce WHO’s work in assisting country-level implementation of effective policy interventions to reduce the demand for tobacco and protect against industry tactics to undermine global and national efforts to implement evidence-based tobacco control policies.

Call to action

The world cannot afford another generation deceived by the lies of the tobacco industry, which pretends to promote freedom of personal choice while really ensuring eternal profits – regardless of the millions of people that pay with their life each year.

WHO urges influencers – in pop culture, on social media, in the home, or in the classroom – who reach and connect with youth to expose the industries’ manipulative tactics to create a new generation of tobacco users. We need to empower youth to stand up to Big Tobacco by dispelling its lies and refusing to use its products.

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For more social media materials, visit the global campaign site.

 

Social Media Challenge for World No Tobacco Day TikTok Challenge

How can you participate?

1. 1. Join the WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY TikTok Challenge in four ways:
   • OPTION 1: Copy the WNTD dance video of Quang Dang on the @WHO TikTok channel and make your own version.
   • OPTION 2: Take the WNTD2020 Quiz uploaded on @WHO TikTok
   • OPTION 3: Use any of the existing WNTD2020 TikTok samples on the @WHO TikTok channel and lend it your own creative spin.
   • OPTION 3: Make your own unique video that tackles at least one (1) from the list of facts provided by WHO, with your own supporting statements based on how you interpret the facts.
2. Upload your video on your personal TikTok channel using the hashtags #TobaccoExposed #SpeakOut and #WHO
3. Tag 5 of your friends to do the WNTD TikTok Challenge.

Mechanics:

• Challenge is open to participants 13 years old and above.
• Participants must post from May 31, 2020 to July 31, 2020.
• The most creative, entertaining, and informative clips will be chosen to be part of a regional advocacy effort to show the strength of the youth to stand up against tobacco manipulation.

Inclusions in the prestigious regional clip will be based on the following criteria:

• Creative Execution = 25%
• Accuracy of supporting facts = 25%
• Communication of key messages = 25%
• Preference of the adjudicating team of the Tobacco Free Initiative Western Pacific Regional Office of the World Health Organization = 25%

Selection Overview:

• TikTok users whose videos will be included in the regional clip will be contacted by the agency to ask for their clearance for usage via a consent form.
• Any submitted entry using the three hashtags may be reposted by the WHO for promotional purposes.
• The final clip will showcase influencers and TikTok users from across the region with interesting clips of those who take part in this advocacy and want to be counted among the many regional advocates who finally want to #SpeakOut and get #TobaccoExposed for its manipulative tactics.