Smoke-Free Future

When The Danish Cancer Society and TrygFonden established the partnership Smoke-Free Future in 2017, the tobacco debate was non-existing. No legislation had been passed for 10 years. And only 13% of Danes believed that we’d be able to stop passing on our bad habits to our children and grandchildren.

We needed smoke-free school hours, neutral design on cigarette packaging, tobacco hidden from plain sight in shops and the absolutely crucial and most effective measure: a significant increase in price. But there was no political will to act.

Various campaigns sparked the debate, and for the Danish 2019 budget bill negotiations we needed to remove the politician’s last argument not to increase the tobacco prices: The smoker’s vote.

We discovered that a huge majority of smokers share our ambition of not passing on tobacco to coming generations. So, departing from typical anti-smoking tactics we offered a heartfelt thank you to smokers. Prior to the ’19 elections in a national campaign we thanked smokers for their support and reminded politicians not to fear smokers as a voting demographic.

The film ended on four specific bills: Smoke-free schools. Significantly more expensive cigarettes. Tobacco under the counter. Packages without logos.

In three years we generated national awareness, put tobacco on the agenda, and recruited 226 national partners to Smoke-Free Future including 91 of the 98 Danish local municipalities. The first film was seen by more than 50% of Danish adults and press coverage went through the roof. Tobacco became the third most talked about subject in the elections. And after an almost 13-year standstill in Danish tobacco legislation, after the elections, the new government voted all four initiatives from the campaign into law.