This effort also marks the first time in nearly a decade that Truth Initiative has featured cigarette use in a national media campaign, reflecting ongoing concerns about the glamorization of smoking in popular culture and persistent usage rates in certain demographics. More details about the campaign can be found below.

Gen Z is navigating a nicotine landscape marked by the wide availability of a variety of addictive products with a high nicotine content. The national Outsmart Nicotine campaign confronts changing patterns of nicotine use among young people head on and connects them to free quitting support through EX Program, the organization’s free, evidence-based program.

The expansion of the Outsmart Nicotine campaign introduces three new ads — “Drive Thru,” “Study Sesh,” and “Crush” — that showcase how nicotine use can become a cycle of addiction that is tied to everyday stressors like school, work, social life and family pressures. “Study Sesh,” in particular, portrays a student juggling academic pressure and nicotine cravings, becoming the campaign’s first-ever effort to show and address dual use of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches. In addition to the rise of dual and poly-use of products and the introduction of nicotine pouches in recent years, cigarettes have been seen more prominently in culture and phrases like “drunk cigs don’t count” continue to circulate online with related social media hashtags generating tens of thousands of impressions each month.

Ensuring young people have access to effective quitting resources is critical as many who use nicotine say they want to live free from addiction. Outsmart Nicotine directs young people to EX Program, Truth Initiative’s free digital quitting platform developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic. To date, nearly 1 million young people ages 13 to 24 have joined EX Program on their journey to quit nicotine, a milestone that underscores the role effective and accessible support can play in helping young people live free of nicotine.

The campaign broke with a piece on NBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW1bD4O39dU&feature=youtu.be

Read the full press release: https://truthinitiative.org/press/press-release/truth-initiatives-ex-program-launches-first-campaign-include-nicotine-pouches

Additional content in support of the Outsmart Nicotine effort:

• Breaking the cycle of nicotine addiction and withdrawal
• Multiple products, increased risks
• Research article: multiple tobacco and nicotine product use

Learn more about the campaign: https://truthinitiative.org/outsmart-nicotine
Learn more about EX Program:  https://truthinitiative.org/exprogram

Re-share the campaign on social media.
Please find linked a partner social toolkit for easy re-share: https://socialpresskit.com/truth-initiative

Achieve also noted that it has a commercial manufacturing agreement in place and is preparing for launch, with expectations that cytisinicline could be available in the U.S. in the first half of 2027, if approved. 

The resource library features a curated collection of tools and materials focused on several key areas of tobacco control and prevention:

• General Resources: Evidence-based guides, data, and best practices to strengthen statewide and community-level tobacco prevention efforts.
• Disability Inclusion: Resources promoting equitable and accessible tobacco prevention for people with disabilities.
• Health Systems Change: Tools and strategies for embedding tobacco dependence treatment across health care systems.
• Insurance Coverage: Practical guidance to expand and improve access to comprehensive cessation coverage.

Referral and Treatment: All patients who report current smoking must be referred or receive access to evidence-based smoking cessation treatment within 30 days of screening. Acceptable treatment includes individual counseling by a certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist, provider counseling concordant with evidence-based guidelines, referral to group classes, referral to state quitlines or community resources, FDA-approved pharmacotherapy, mobile health programs like SmokefreeTXT, or any combination. Providing brochures without referral to treatment, or verbal suggestions without evidence-based counseling, does not meet the standard. 
Learn more.

• Navigate to www.tobaccomonitoring.org.
• Choose a state from the “State E-Cigarette Sales Data” menu under the “Retail Sales Data” dropdown.
• Each state automatically shows the “BY FLAVOR” chart upon loading. New selections are now available to toggle between “Unit Sales,” “Dollar Sales” and “Nicotine Sales”.