Young People Celebrate What Quitting Vaping Means to Them in New truth® #ThisIsQuitting TikTok Challenge

As momentum around ditching e-cigarettes mounts, truth^® continues inspiring young vapers to get creative with new TikTok challenge and an innovative resource to quit

WASHINGTON, D.C. (FEBRUARY 28, 2020) – As youth momentum around quitting e-cigarettes grows, truth^®, the proven-effective and nationally-recognized youth smoking prevention campaign from Truth Initiative^®, is launching its second TikTok challenge as part of the “Ready to Ditch JUUL” campaign. The new #ThisisQuitting TikTok challenge comes on the heels of the first truth challenge and national campaign that launched in January when according to recent data, nearly 50 percent of young people said they were looking to quit vaping as a New Year’s resolution. The initial challenge had more than 1.8B views on TikTok and more than 365,000 TikTok user-created videos and helped young people nationwide quit vaping. Given 6.2 million youth were current users of any tobacco product in 2019, largely driven by e-cigarettes, the first challenge, and overall campaign, was created to address the youth e-cigarette epidemic and amplify the cultural movement — started by young people themselves — to break up with JUUL and other e-cigarette brands like Puff Bar, Stig and Viigo.

This second #ThisIsQuitting TikTok challenge invites TikTok users to creatively express what quitting vaping means to them, whether that is through a dance, an action or a duet response, while driving those looking to quit vaping to truth’s highly successful, free and anonymous, text-based, quit vaping program, This is Quitting. To date, the program has more than 125,000 young people enrolled, and since the national “Ready to Ditch JUUL” campaign launched in January, there has been a 4x increase in average daily registrations. Preliminary data about the program published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research show after just two weeks of using This is Quitting, more than half — 60.8% — reported that they had reduced or stopped using e-cigarettes. Teens and young adults can text “DITCHVAPE” to 88709 and get immediate help now.

To help spread the word and invite participation, truth will partner with TikTok stars featuring Michael Le, who choreographed an original dance for the challenge. Other contributors include Makell Taylor, Austin Ware and Trevor Bell, to name a few. Stars will be asking TikTok users to join in a “NoVapesCheck” either by dueting with Michal Le’s dance or contributing their own creative spin using the #ThisisQuitting challenge music.

"It’s scary to see how many young people are vaping, especially on social media, which I believe has influenced this epidemic,” said TikTok influencer Makell Taylor. “In my opinion, I don’t think that my peers realized the dangers of vaping and some believe they’re invincible, and I want to change that. I’m extremely excited to partner with truth and use my platform to inspire young people to ditch their vapes and help them quit for good."

Although more young people are looking to quit e-cigarettes entirely, newer disposable devices, like Puff Bar, Stig, and Viigo, remain on the market unchecked and have grown in popularity. While on February 5, under oath, e-cigarette chief executives admitted that their products can lead to nicotine addiction, e-cigarette products are not yet fully regulated. The new FDA policy on flavored e-cigarettes is woefully inadequate, leaving menthol and other youth-appealing sweet and candy flavors, like cotton candy and gummy bears, on the market and readily available to teens. Still, little is known about all the short or long-term health effects of e-cigarettes. Many young people didn’t know the potential risks of e-cigarettes or what they were getting themselves into when they first started using e-cigarettes. In fact, a majority of youth and young adult JUUL users – 63% – did not know that the product always contains nicotine.

For more information on This is Quitting, please visit https://truthinitiative.org/thisisquitting.