Tobacco Kills: Say No and Save Lives

At the launch of the campaign, Ministers of Parliament, musicians, artists, and civil society organisations marched and expressed their opinion via music, poetry, skits, and art saying 'No' to tobacco to save lives. A Tweet-Up was held in conjunction with the launch where bloggers and tweeters in Uganda joined in and shared the launch live with their followers. The social media campaign is continuing, and people can join via the different social media channels. One campaign example is "Do you have what it takes to quit smoking for 7 days?" This is a social experiment where people can document their personal journey and inspire others to stop smoking as well.

Along with social media for promotional activities, a radio edutainment drama is being produced in 6 languages across the country. This drama follows the lives of a family and how they are affected by tobacco. Listeners can express their views and comments about what they learned from each episode online or via SMS. As part of the campaign, organisers are also going to schools to seek out youths' opinion and knowledge about tobacco control. They are using this to map out the different smoke-free public places (restaurants, bars, hotels) in Kampala and promote the signing of a petition.

People can sign the online petition, join in the wall of fame, or read news about the project on the Tobacco Kills: Say No & Save Lives website.

The campaign is promoting discussion through the Tobacco Kills: Say No & Save Lives facebook page and @TobaccoKillsUG twitter.

Health, Smoking

According to the campaign, due to anti-smoking campaigns in America and Europe tobacco sales have declined. Now cigarette companies are moving to a new continent. They are developing promotional activities in Africa where the middle class is growing and regulation on selling single cigarettes is very relaxed. This makes smoking cheap and accessible, also for children. The middle class in Africa has increased access to social media and that is exactly why this anti-tobacco campaign uses social media to reach their target group. According to "Tobacco Kills: Say No & Save Lives" under-age smoking is a problem and children as young as 9 start smoking in Uganda.

The following are some of the results to date:

• A total of 1582 fans on Facebook
• A weekly reach on Facebook of 147,262 people
• 406 people talking about TobaccoKills
• The day the campaign was launched #tobaccokills was mentioned 853 times on Twitter and became the number 1 trending hashtag in Uganda
• Google Hangouts are organised on Google+ to have face-to-face group interaction to discuss related topics. For example a Google Hangout with a doctor from Butabika Hospital was organised to discuss the top tips to quit smoking.