healio.comThis Free Life
“Freedom to Be, Tobacco-Free”
FDA's first tobacco education campaign for LGBT young adults (18-24), launched May 2016 in 12 markets, aimed especially at occasional 'social' smokers. Primarily digital, with print, out-of-home and LGBT venue outreach challenging the idea that tobacco is part of LGBT culture.
- Years
- 2016
- Country
- United States
- Budget
- About $35.7 million (news reports), tobacco user fees
- Topic
- Tobacco
- Asks people to
- Never startStop
- Strategy
- Social normsTestimonial
- Channel
- EventsOutdoorPrintSocial (paid)
- Audience
- Young adultsLGBT young adults 18-24, especially occasional smokers; markets included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
Evidence
Quasi-experimentalUnknown
24 media markets assigned to campaign or control; baseline 2016 plus six follow-ups over 3 years (n=12,324). Small but significant effects on five tobacco-related beliefs (difference-in-difference 1.9-5.6 percentage points). Behavior not reported as an outcome in the sources seen.
Sponsor (who paid)
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Tobacco Products Federal government, funder and creator
Credits (who made it)
- Rescue Agency Creative, 2016- source
- RTI International Research evaluation, 2016-2019 source
Executions (individual ads)
- City health department running This Free Life copy: tobacco kills more LGBTQ people than HIV/AIDS 2020 · social-paid · meta-ad-library · 25K - 30K impressions · spend $100 - $199
Related campaigns
- The Real Cost 2014–now
- Fresh Empire 2015
Sources
- Crankshaw E et al. Final Evaluation Findings for This Free Life, a 3-Year, Multi-Market Tobacco Public Education Campaign for Gender and Sexual Minority Young Adults. Nicotine Tob Res 2022;24(1):109-117 evaluation · 2021 · DOI 10.1093/ntr/ntab146 · PMID 34270739
- Guillory J et al. LGBT young adults' awareness of and receptivity to the This Free Life tobacco public education campaign. Tob Control 2021;30(1):63-70 evaluation · 2020 · DOI 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2019-055239 · PMID 31941821
- Navarro MA et al. LGBT Identity and Its Influence on Perceived Effectiveness of Advertisements from a LGBT Tobacco Public Education Campaign. J Health Commun 2019;24(5):469-481 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1080/10810730.2019.1615582 · PMID 31116651
- FDA initiates anti-tobacco campaign aimed at LGBT young adults (Healio) news · 2016
- FDA launches LGBT anti-tobacco campaign (Windy City Times) news · 2016
Research notes
Credits checked 2026-10-22 against fetched pages: Rescue Agency (its 2018 impact report features This Free Life as a national campaign spotlight, 'since launching in May 2016'; the report presents it as Rescue's work but does not use the word 'created'); RTI (Crossref record of the 2021 NTR final evaluation: lead authors at RTI International; a Fors Marsh Group co-author also appears). 3-year campaign per final evaluation, so likely ended around 2019; confirm. Funding source described inconsistently (user fees vs taxes) in press. Meta Ad Library / Google Ads Transparency Center: search advertiser 'U.S. Food and Drug Administration' and campaign page 'This Free Life'. Reuse terms checked 2026-10-23 by an AI research pass for #47; not yet reviewed by a person.
Record cases/fda-this-free-life.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign