Tips Campaign Matte Article for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Community

This matte article about the Tips From Former Smokers^® campaign is ready for use. It is available for journalists, bloggers, other members of the media, and organizations’ newsletters.

CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers Campaign Airing a New Round of Hard-Hitting Commercials

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tips From Former Smokers^® (Tips^®) campaign returns with new hard-hitting ads. The campaign features real people impacted by the serious long-term health effects of smoking and secondhand smoke exposure. The Tips campaign also tells the stories of family members who take care of a loved one living with a smoking-related disease.

Many of this year’s new ads include messaging about the harms of menthol cigarettes. Tobacco companies add menthol to commercial tobacco products to make them seem less harsh and more appealing to people who have never used cigarettes. People who smoke menthol cigarettes can be less likely to successfully quit than people who smoke non-menthol cigarettes.

Tobacco companies aggressively market menthol-flavored tobacco products to different groups of people. This marketing contributes to certain groups being more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than other groups. Young people, racial and ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with a low income, and people with mental health conditions are more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than other population groups.

Smoking among LGBTQ+ adults in the United States is much higher than among heterosexual/straight adults. In 2020,16.1% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults smoked, while 12.3% heterosexual/straight adults smoked cigarettes.

Angie P. shares her story in this year’s Tips campaign. Angie started smoking at age 15. She smoked menthol cigarettes because she thought it would help her to cope with the fear that people would not accept that she is gay. She quit smoking for good in her early 40s.

“My hope is to help other people, especially LGBTQ+ people, understand what the tobacco companies are trying to do with their advertising. I’d tell them it’s not worth it to smoke,” Angie said. “Their lives and their health are worth more.”

The new campaign ads air beginning February 5, 2024 and run through September 22, 2024.

“The Tips ads show the challenges real people face every day as a result of smoking in a way that statistics cannot,” said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, PhD, MPH, Director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “We are grateful to all of the people featured in the Tips campaign for sharing their personal stories about how smoking has negatively impacted their lives. By providing information, resources, and motivation, the Tips campaign has helped save lives.”

CDC launched the first federally funded national tobacco education campaign, Tips, in March 2012. From 2012–2018, CDC estimates that approximately one million people successfully quit smoking and millions more tried to quit because of the Tips campaign.

For more information about the Tips campaign and resources for quitting smoking, visit CDC.gov/tips. For help quitting, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669).

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