truth® Extends Interactive Reach, Engages Young People On Social Networking Web Sites The American Legacy Foundation®'s national youth smoking prevention campaign is bringing its recently launched Infect truth® campaign directly to teens by placing new truth® "profile pages" on popular social networking sites. The Infect truth® campaign, first launched on Oct. 23, targeted traditional media such as television and magazines. This next phase of the campaign connects with teens on another level, reaching them through online sites where they frequently gather and share information. Placing truth® -related materials on the social networking sites MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, and Piczo, as well as Xanga (a community of online diaries and journals) marks the campaign's first foray into having a presence on social media sites of this type. By tapping into new "forward to a friend" technology, truth® is pushing the capabilities of these social networking sites by encouraging teens to make the truth® message their own and communicate it directly to their friends and peers. The combined reach of the social networking Web sites exceeds 59 billion monthly page views. Having the truth® campaign engage with this viral capability marks a strategic approach to spread the campaign's messages quickly, organically and economically. In February 2005 the American Legacy Foundation released the results of an evaluation of the national truth® campaign that was published in the American Journal of Public Health. The study found that 22 percent of the overall decline in youth smoking during the first two years of the campaign (2000-2002) is directly attributable to truth®. This equates to 300,000 fewer youth smokers in 2002 as a result of the campaign.