American Legacy / Truth Initiative

2020: Seeing COVID-19 through a cloud of cigarette smoke

• The current generation of workers in tobacco control, predominantly those with master’s degrees in public health who work for health departments, has been led to believe that anti-smoking efforts began with the creation of The Truth campaign in the late-1990s as the result of the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between the state attorneys general and the tobacco industry that gives money to the states each year to fight smoking.
• As for other funding to reduce smoking, Bloomberg Philanthropies awarded Johns Hopkins over $300 million to do more research and to support anti-smoking legislation around the world, as well as more than $100 million to the D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids for its anti-smoking lobbying and public education efforts. As with the government, engaging mass media education takes a back seat to the safe sinecure of research. The MSA-funded Truth campaign (formerly the American Legacy Foundation, established with $2.5 billion in settlement funds) also spends most of its budget on research, with a modest amount going for paid mass media, but with restrictions on the mention of tobacco company names and cigarette brand names.

2020: There's a right way and a wrong way to "Ditch JUUL"

• Truth launched a program encouraging people to Ditch their JUUL. This report documents why the program is dangerous to humans, property, and the environment.
• That campaign was one of 3 honorees in the "Best Use of Social Media in an Experiential Activation" category by Adweek

2006: THE YEAR AT A GLANCE. 2006 Annual Report

• Includes list of who received grants that year