Effort to get teens to “left swipe” tobacco earns 2 top awards from PR week

The public relations campaign behind the truth® campaign’s “Left Swipe Dat” took home two awards for inspiring youth to end tobacco use, winning campaign of the year honors in two categories at the PR Week Awards, which celebrate the best corporate, agency, nonprofit and education campaigns in the communications industry. 

“Left Swipe ‘Dat,” a music video released at the Grammy’s in 2015, tapped into the impact that tobacco has on teen dating and relationships. Profile pictures that include smoking get rejected with “left swipes” almost twice as often as those that do not. The video used humor to deliver the message that tobacco is not only deadly, it’s also unattractive, and was rolled out with a public relations campaign that helped propel #LeftSwipeDat to worldwide top trending status twice during its premiere on the Grammy Awards.

The awards recognized the success of the “Left Swipe Dat” PR campaign, created and executed in collaboration with Ketchum. The campaign was named the Arts, Entertainment, Sports & Media Campaign of the Year, and the Nonprofit Campaign of the Year. 

Judges showered the campaign with praise, calling it “a great creative effort” and “a brilliant and relevant approach.” When the campaign was reviewed by PR Week judges, the music video had been viewed online more than 39 million times.

Earlier in the week, truth won two awards at the Advertising Research Foundation David Ogilvy Awards, which celebrate the role of insights that inspire great advertising.