Problem/Objective: In 2006, Ohio evolved its stand-branded counter-marketing efforts through an aggressive anti-tobacco counter-marketing campaign to denormalize tobacco use among Ohio youth and college/straight-to-work young adults, ages 12-24.

Methods: To evaluate the DEBUNKIFY campaign, a longitudinal sample of young adults in Ohio was compared with a longitudinal national sample. Approximately 800 Ohio young adults, evenly divided between college and non-college youth, were compared with a comparable group of youth in a US sample. The analyses compared changes in the social appeal of smoking, changes in smoking and the progression to established smoking. We compared changes in trends and changes among individuals who recalled being exposed or not exposed to the campaign.

As a new initiative, the DEBUNKIFY integrated marketing campaign was launched as an anonymous teaser advertising and grassroots effort. One month later, a launch event revealed the campaign's messages and provided the opportunity to debut two television spots and a 10-month DEBUNKIFY mobile tour.

Results: Eighteen qualitative focus groups revealed several misperceptions about tobacco held by the target audiences, including an overestimation of the percentage of Ohioans who smoke. Using social norming strategies, Ohio's campaign seeks to “debunkify” myths about the prevalence and social appeal of smoking. It creates a "marked" behavior for the non-smoking lifestyle and engages the targets to create personal identification through words, actions, and symbolic badges.

Conclusions: This study particularly focused on the effects on social smoking of young adults. Eighteen qualitative focus groups revealed several misperceptions about tobacco.