San Francisco Launches Campaign Against E-Cigs

SAN FRANCISCO — The city and county of San Francisco are taking a stance against electronic cigarettes in a public education campaign.

The advertising campaign called #CurbIt includes ads on the sides of more than 130 San Francisco municipal buses, more than 130 Bay Area Rapid Transit/Muni station rail-side wall ads, and 750 cards on the interior of buses that riders can see while they stand or sit for their commute.

Several of the ads are in Chinese and Spanish to reach a larger segment of San Francisco’s diverse population.

The campaign also includes a social media component: Twitter, @sftobaccofree; Instagram, @sftobaccofree; and Facebook, www.facebook.com/sftobaccofree. The campaign uses hastags on its social media platforms including #CurbIt, #NotWaterVapor, #EcigsAreCigs, #ToxicVapor and #SmokelessNotHarmless. 

#CurbIt details three main objectives for its campaign:

1. Educate San Francisco and beyond about the harm e-cigs have and the connection between e-cigs and the tobacco industry;

2. Inform San Franciscans about a new law that treats e-cigs identically to cigarettes, and reinforce laws that restrict smoking/vaping to a limited number of spaces (the tale behind the #CurbIt message); and

3. Encourage smokers and vapors to kick the nicotine habit and “curb it” once and for all.

For more information on #CurbIt’s mission, visit www.sftobaccofree.org. 

The state of Alaska also recently launched a similar media campaign to educate the public about e-cigarettes.