Rescue SCG will soon be starting work on a new culture-based social marketing project with the Utah State Department of Health to prevent youth tobacco use. Based on teen smoking research conducted by Rescue SCG in 2009, youth that identified with the emo/goth subculture were found to be two to four times at greater risk of tobacco use. In order to address this cultural disparity, the state requested proposals for a culture-based social marketing program and awarded the contract to Rescue Social Change Group.

Rescue SCG will be using its proprietary Social Branding® model to break the association between the emo/goth culture and smoking. A Social Brand will use music events, brand ambassadors, street marketing and web to build credibility within the culture and motivate change. The ultimate goal is to concentrate efforts on those youth most at-risk in order to reduce Utah’s low, but stubbornly unchanged teen tobacco use rate of 7.9%.

Stay tuned for more updates as Rescue SCG works with the Utah State Department of Health to select the social brand and launch the intervention.