Cancer Council Tasmania and Quit Tasmania officially launch ‘Don’t let Vaping In’ campaign

Quit Tasmania knows a ‘traditional’ campaign won’t cut it for the younger generation. So, instead, they turned to TikTok and Snapchat for help.

Users of TikTok and Snapchat might have noticed a series of short videos appearing on their feeds as part of a new anti-vaping campaign.

Cancer Council Tasmania (CCT) and Quit Tasmania have officially launched the “Don’t Let Vaping In” campaign.

In addition to the videos, a series of social media profiles have also been created to emulate an online troll – highlighting its similar characteristics to vaping addiction.

CEO Cancer Council Alison Lai. Picture: Mireille Merlet

CCT CEO Alison Lai said vaping among teenagers was a concern for her organisation.

“Through CCT research with young people aged between 12 and 17, 11,000 of those young Tasmanians indicted they had vaped,” Ms Lai said.

“Now that has been quite a significant increase in the five years prior to that where it was only 13 per cent of young people who had tried vaping, which is now looking at more like 1 in 3 – so that’s quite concerning.

“And also, we know nationally that research is indicating that people who vape are five times more likely to be susceptible to smoking tobacco.

“We obviously need to make sure that we are very proactive around vaping, particularly for young people.”

Quit Director Abby Smith. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

Quit Tasmania Director Abby Smith said more than 280 young people had been consulted about how to best conduct the anti-vaping campaign.

“Although we have decades of experience developing anti-tobacco campaigns, we knew a traditionally executed campaign might not connect as well with this younger generation – so the messaging needed to be integrated into content the audience was already consuming on social media,” Ms Smith said.

“Young people are so sophisticated in their use of social media, and with content trends changing rapidly, we needed a campaign that was one step ahead of the game.”

A bill passed the Legislative Council on Thursday which will mean only people over the age of 18 with a prescription from a GP would be able to buy vapes – and pharmacists would be allowed to sell them.

“This is going to be a stronger control of access to vaping products than there is anywhere else in the country,” Children Minister Roger Jaensch said.

“We’re very proud to be taking a strong leadership role in this.”

Originally published as Cancer Council Tasmania and Quit Tasmania officially launch ‘Don’t let Vaping In’ campaign