The Real Cost

 

The Real Cost is a campaign used by the FDA that is targeted towards preventing youths from starting and continuing to use tobacco products. The Real Cost represents an embodied health movement, similar to that of The Western Disease described by Claire Decouteau. An Embodied Health movement is defined by three characteristics. The first characteristic is that it focuses on the biological body, specifically the embodied experience of those with the disease. The Real Cost utilizes this by featuring many individuals who have been affected by tobacco-related diseases in their commercials, as seen in the photo. These individuals describe their disease and how it has been detrimental to their lives in order to convey the harm cigarettes can cause and prevent tobacco uptake. The second characteristic of an embodied health movement is that they typically challenge existing medical or scientific knowledge and practice. This campaign does this by emphasizing the harm caused by tobacco, a substance previously thought to cause little harm, and was once even considered healthy. This image features the caption “smokeless doesn’t mean harmless” which references the harm caused by smoke-free tobacco products such as dip, snuff, and chew. This challenges existing ideas about the harm caused by tobacco to be primarily associated with cigarette smoke. The third defining characteristic of embodied health movements is that they often involve activists collaborating with scientists and health professionals in pursuing treatment, prevention, and research. The Real Cost is a campaign that has been developed through extensive research collaboration with health professionals and marketing strategists. The FDA conducts ongoing research with youths, including focus groups and surveys that are diverse in geography, race and ethnicity, gender, and age. They have found that targeting teen uptake is the most successful tobacco control strategy, and have seen success with recent denormalization strategies. The Real Cost campaign recognizes the inequality that exists in health behaviors as well as access to health care. This embodied health movement has seen success in their strategies as tobacco usage has continued to decline over time. 

Center for Tobacco Products. 2023 “The Real Cost Campaign.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Last updated Jan 10. Retrieved April 10 2023. https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/public-health-education-campaigns/real-cost-campaign. 

Decoteau, Claire Laurier. 2017. “The ‘Western disease’: Autism and Somali Parents' Embodied Health Movements”. Social Science & Medicine. 177:169-176