New Super Bowl Ad Reminds Minnesotans: 'We All Pay the Price for Tobacco'

The Super Bowl is known as much for its striking ads as it is for the actual football game. Among this year's offerings will be a new ad from ClearWay Minnesota that somberly reminds Minnesotans that "we all pay the price for tobacco."

The devastating economic, emotional and health consequences of tobacco use are explored though a series of fast-paced, provocative images in a new spot called "Cash Register." The new spot will air during the Super Bowl in Minneapolis, Duluth and Rochester, and statewide in the months to follow. Other elements of the campaign will include a website and print, online and bus ads.

"Our hope is that this campaign will spur renewed awareness that the cost of tobacco use, in lives lost, disease and health care costs, continues to be too high for individuals, families and the state," said David Willoughby, Chief Executive Officer of ClearWay Minnesota. "As Minnesota wrestles with historic budget deficits and soaring health care costs, the goal of continuing to reduce tobacco use needs to be a part of the solution."

The spot ends with the new campaign's website, www.weallpaytheprice.com, which provides facts about the comprehensive costs of tobacco, as well as highlighting areas where progress has been made and resources for people who want to quit.

The We All Pay the Price campaign highlights the following facts about tobacco use in Minnesota:

* Annually, tobacco use costs more than 5,500 Minnesotans their lives in addition to nearly $2 billion in health care costs, according to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
* Seventeen percent of Minnesotans, or 634,000 people, continue to smoke, according to the 2007 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey.
* Each pack of cigarettes smoked in Minnesota costs an estimated $8.85 in medical expenses and lost productivity, according to the CDC. The average cost of a pack of cigarettes is $4.24.

"ClearWay Minnesota has a history of launching new and innovative campaigns during the Super Bowl," said Jerry Fury, Vice President Creative Director at Clarity Coverdale Fury, the Minneapolis advertising agency that created the campaign. "The campaign's power is in the message that 'we all pay the price of tobacco.' That sentiment really hits home for the majority of Minnesotans, who have all been touched in some way by the devastating consequences of tobacco use."

The We All Pay the Price campaign will run through June. To view the television spot, contact Kerri Gordon for a copy on DVD, or visit www.weallpaytheprice.com on Friday, January 30.

All Minnesota adults have access to free professional stop-smoking help through QUITPLAN(R) Services, including free nicotine patches, gum or lozenges. During the past eight years, more than 12,700 Minnesotans quit smoking with the help of QUITPLAN Services. Call 1-888-354-PLAN or visit www.quitplan.com for more information.

ClearWay Minnesota is an independent, nonprofit organization that improves the health of Minnesotans by reducing the harm caused by tobacco. ClearWay Minnesota serves Minnesota through its grant-making program, QUITPLAN(R) stop-smoking services and statewide outreach activities. It is funded with 3 percent of the state's 1998 tobacco settlement.

For more information on ClearWay Minnesota or QUITPLAN Services, call 952-767-1400 or visit www.clearwaymn.org.