Mobilizing voters to pressure
City Council

The Council for a Tobacco-Free Community is a local coalition of health professionals, the Canadian Cancer Society, The Lung Association, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the Middlesex-London Health Unit and others who are committed to reducing tobacco use in London and area.

CTFC approached SC to develop a multi-media campaign to motivate Londoners to call local politicians and express their opinions about smoking in bars and restaurants, as well as workplaces. The primary concern was that City Council might approve Designated Smoking Rooms (DSRs) for bars and restaurants, thereby effectively allowing indoor smoking sections once again, under a new name.

SC developed a series of eye-catching newspaper ads, amusing radio spots, and colourful bookmarks (distributed throughout the library system) that raised awareness about the issue before council, and directed concerned Londoners to speak out — "Don't Hold Your Breath!" All ads directed Londoners to CTFC's website. CTFC members also started a cascading "viral campaign" by email, with a link to the website.

On the CTFC website, we prominently positioned a button to allow Londoners to simultaneously email all members of city council at once. As a result, politicians at City Hall were overwhelmed by more than 18,000 emails. By comparison, only 3 opponents used our email function to object to the smoke-free bylaw.

The CTFC website was scheduled to be taken offline in October 2003, but SC also developed a similar site for the Windsor Essex Council on Smoking and Health (WECSH), which is up and running at: www.smokefreewindsor.ca

Radio spot (1.4 mb MP3)