The “This Free Life” campaign launched in 2016 to prevent and reduce tobacco use among LGBT young adults who occasionally smoked cigarettes. When the campaign launched, there were more than 2 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) young adults ages 18-24 living in the United States¹ . LGBT young adults are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults, ultimately resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of LGBT lives to tobacco use each year² .

Prior to launch, FDA conducted extensive formative research to develop audience insights and test campaign messaging approaches for different LGBT subpopulations. “This Free Life” used primarily digital-only marketing tactics, including online and streaming video, digital advertisements, and social media, in select markets throughout the United States. Campaign messaging featured authentic and credible voices from the tobacco-free LGBT community to educate the audience on the negative consequences of smoking. The campaign also utilized innovative approaches with social media and influencers to encourage LGBT young adults to live tobacco-free.    

The campaign’s implementation and evaluation were completed in 2020. Overall, the campaign was able to reach many LGBT young adults and deliver tobacco prevention messaging that resonated with the audience. 

Select campaign print advertisements are available on the CTP Exchange Lab.

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Publications

• Final Evaluation Findings for This Free Life, a 3-Year, Multi-Market Tobacco Public Education Campaign for Gender and Sexual Minority Young Adults in the United States
• LGBT Young Adults’ Awareness of and Receptivity to the This Free Life Tobacco Public Education Campaign
• To Speak to Me, Address Us: Insights from LGBT Young Adults to Inform Public Education Campaigns
• Recruiting Hard-to-Reach Populations for Survey Research: Using Facebook and Instagram Advertisements and In-Person Intercept in LGBT Bars and Nightclubs to Recruit LGBT Young Adults
• Tobacco use among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young adults varies by sexual and gender identity
• LGBT Identity and Its Influence on Perceived Effectiveness of Advertisements from a LGBT Tobacco Public Education Campaign

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Awards

• Hermes Awards 
  • 2020 Gold: Social Video category 
  • 2019 Gold: Games, Contests, & Presentations category 
  • 2018 Platinum: Social Marketing Campaign category 
  • 2018 Platinum: Social Video category 
  • 2018 Platinum: YouTube Video category

• Telly Awards 
  • 2019 Gold: Public Service & Activism for Social Video category 
  • 2018 Gold: Public Interest & Awareness for Online category
  • 2018 Bronze: Lighting for Branded Content
  • 2018 Bronze: Public Service and Activism for Social Video category  
  • 2017 Bronze: Cultural category for Video / Shows / Segments 

• Ad Pop Awards
  • 2017 Gold: Non-Profit category for print ads 
• Shorty Social Good Awards
  • 2017 Finalist: Tumblr category. 

• Association of National Advertisers (ANA) 
  • 2017 Winner: Multicultural Excellence Award LGBT category 
  • 2016 Grand Prize: Multicultural Excellence Award 

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