In 2002, pro-health advocates cheered New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s bold proposal to make all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, 100% smoke-free—but they knew the initiative would face a formidable challenge from Big Tobacco, an opponent with very deep pockets, numerous front groups, and a proven ability to misinform the public.

The tobacco-control advocates were smart and experienced, but they lacked the capacity to mobilize citywide to counter the tobacco industry’s reach. With crucial support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a coalition of local activists turned to M+R Strategic Services for help.

M+R Solution

M+R identified four actions critical to winning the public debate over secondhand smoke:

• Educate NYC’s diverse residents about the grave health risks associated with secondhand smoke;
• Articulate the principle that no worker should be forced to breathe this toxin;
• Ensure that key decision makers saw the strong public support for smoke-free air; and
• Organize a sizeable, diverse cadre of informed activists and workers—and the means to mobilize them.

M+R crafted a strategy to rapidly achieve these goals and build the coalition’s level of activity and influence.  M+R recruited a team of organizers representative of New York City’s diversity and launched a concerted grassroots and media campaign to educate New Yorkers about the dangers of secondhand smoke.

Results

During the three-month campaign, the M+R team organized more than 120 educational events across the city; identified, prepped, and organized workers and activists to testify at every City Council hearing on the subject; and delivered presentations to scores of senior-centers and community meetings. M+R aggressively mobilized more than 100 field events—from leafleting at supermarkets and subways to canvassing high-traffic restaurant and bar neighborhoods. The campaign generated media coverage in every major media outlet, as well as in community and ethnic outlets including The Bayside Times, The Canarsie Courier, El Diario and Sing Tao Daily.

M+R helped our clients radically reframe the public debate about secondhand smoke and the right to breathe clean air.  In December 2002, Mayor Bloomberg signed a law protecting workers from secondhand smoke in all workplaces, including restaurants and bars.  Today more than three out of four New Yorkers support the City’s policy to protect workers and the public from secondhand smoke, and many more localities have followed New York’s lead.

M+R Expert

For more information please contact Michael O’Loughlin at moloughlin@mrss.com or (917) 438-4609.