Our top issues

In our fight to end youth and young adult nicotine addiction, we focus on the issues that matter most. We constantly monitor the latest topics and trends in commercial tobacco and substance use.

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Who we are

At Truth Initiative, we are committed to a future free from lifelong addiction, fostering healthier lives and a more resilient nation. We are the nation’s largest nonprofit public health organization dedicated to preventing youth and young adult nicotine addiction and empowering quitting for all.

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Research & resources

Get the latest facts and analyses on the most important issues related to smoking, vaping, nicotine and substance use.

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What we do

By driving behavior and policy change, we prevent addiction, increase quitting, reduce nicotine dependence, and expand cessation support and access. All backed by rigorous research and evaluation.

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Get involved

Join us in preventing youth and young adult nicotine addiction and empowering quitting for all. Learn about how you can help create a future free from nicotine addiction through activism, scholarships, studies, and more. Let’s work together.

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The power of truth

For 25 years, truth® has been delivering the facts about smoking, vaping, and nicotine addiction to empower young people to make informed choices and influence their peers and communities to do the same.

Inspiring a movement to live free from nicotine addiction

See our impact

The truth national public education and prevention campaign has helped drive down youth smoking prevalence from 23% in 2000 to under 2% today and has reduced youth e-cigarette use to the lowest level in a decade. Whether it’s dropping body bags at the doorstep of the tobacco industry, calling out celebrities for being unpaid spokespeople, or launching a fake vape company called Depression Stick!, truth has a track record of impacting culture and saving lives.

Highlights from truth

truth campaign

​Our first truth campaign ads air nationwide, and the truth tour brings information to teens at music and sports venues across the country. 

Shards O’ Glass

“Shards O’ Glass” features a fictitious company that manufactures freeze pops with glass shards in them, a dangerous product analogous to cigarettes.

450,000 lives saved

According to research published by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, truth was responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke during its first four years.

"Finish It" campaign

We launched the “Finish It” campaign, aimed at empowering youth and young adults to make their generation the one that finally ends smoking. Our campaign launches at the MTV Video Music Awards with this message: The tobacco crisis isn’t over, but this generation can be the one to finish it. 

Left Swipe Dat

A music video released at the 2015 Grammy Awards, “Left Swipe Dat” focuses on the impact that tobacco has on relationships: research from online dating apps shows that profile pictures that contain tobacco are more likely to be rejected, or “left swiped.”

CATmageddon

Warning of a world without the internet’s favorite cat videos, #CATmageddon is a humorous ad that carries a serious message: dogs and cats who live in a smoking household are twice as likely to get cancer.

Tested on Humans

“Tested on Humans,” highlights how little is known about the long-term effects of e-cigarettes which are still unregulated, exposing an entire generation to the risk of nicotine addiction and allowing them to be treated like human guinea pigs.

Breath of Stress Air

“Breath of Stress Air” busts the fantasy that vaping nicotine is a stress reliever and calls the tobacco industry out for promoting e-cigarettes and vaping as a way to deal with stress, when in fact vaping nicotine can increase stress levels and amplify feelings of anxiety and depression.

Toxic Therapy from Your Vape

Featuring actor and comedian Chris Parnell in an animated role as a vape-turned-faux therapist, “Toxic Therapy from Your Vape” sheds light on the misconception that vaping nicotine helps alleviate stress and anxiety.

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