Tobacco company launches “put your lighters down” campaign for Calgary Stampede
For this year's Calgary Stampede, Unsmoke Canada, a campaign run by a major tobacco producer, launched an educational resource encouraging adults to stop smoking and switch to smoke-free alternatives.
Ahead of the Calgary Stampede happening this weekend, Rothmans Benson and Hedges, one of the largest tobacco companies in Canada, launched an educational campaign to help encourage Stampede goers to quit smoking and switch to less harmful smoke-free nicotine alternatives.
The tobacco company’s “Unsmoke Canada” initiative will run its “Put Your Lighters Down” awareness campaign, themed towards the annual Calgary Stampede, across the city in the hopes of convincing adults who are still smoking to put down combustible tobacco for good.
The ads, which will be posted around Calgary, direct readers to an online resource that explains the differences between cigarettes and smoke-free alternatives, including heated tobacco products, vaping products and nicotine pouches.
“Calgary Stampede is a moment when the city comes together, and it gives us an opportunity to reach adult smokers with a clear message: put your lighter down and get informed,” Milena Trentadue, the managing director at Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, said in a news release. “Quitting is always the best choice, but adults who would otherwise continue smoking should be able to understand the differences between cigarettes and smoke-free alternatives.”
Though the resource states that non-smoke alternatives are less harmful than combustible tobacco, it also notes that whether it be heated tobacco, vapes or nicotine pouches, none of the options are “risk-free.”
Currently, Canada has an estimated nearly four million smokers. Health Canada aims to reduce tobacco use to less than five per cent of the Canadian population by 2035.
In January, Health Canada admitted that half of those who quit smoking used nicotine replacements. At the same time, Consumer’s Choice Centre’s North American Affairs manager, David Clement, told Juno News that multiple public health bodies in Canada and England now say vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking,
The news release notes that Canadian regulations prevent adult smokers from accessing information about the relative risks of smoke-free products compared to combustible cigarettes.
“Adults who smoke deserve information that helps them make decisions based on facts, not guesswork,” Kory McDonald, the head of corporate affairs at Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, said in a statement. “This campaign is about awareness, adult choice and the need for policies that better reflect the fundamental difference between products that burn and products that do not.
