MPAAT: Clearing the Air About Secondhand Smoke

Confronting the smoke and mirrors of the tobacco industry, the Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco (MPAAT) engaged Padilla Speer Beardsley (PSB) to publicize a campaign educating Minnesotans on the dangers of secondhand smoke and create support for restrictions on smoking in public. After conducting a public opinion poll of residents’ attitudes toward secondhand smoke, PSB coupled engaging consumer information materials with a successful media campaign, landing front-page stories in Minnesota’s four largest daily newspapers and gaining extensive local television and radio coverage. Post-campaign research showed Minnesotans snuffing out uninformed attitudes, with an increase in the percentages of those who believed secondhand smoke to be a serious health hazard, and those who favor ordinances to ban smoking in restaurants.