The Case: As tobacco restrictions had risen in California, Big Tobacco sought out a new market – teens – using candy flavored tobaccos and vape products. A coalition of medical, faith, and political groups came together to combat this with Yes on Prop 31, a ban on candy flavored tobacco. With heavy usage of these products in AAPI communities, the coalition turned to PWM to craft messaging and create advertising reaching voters in-language. 

Our Role:  Potomac Waves Media created in-language print and radio ads for another 2022 Election Night winner in California: the Yes on Prop 31 campaign to ban the sale of candy flavored tobaccos. PWM's deep knowledge and expertise of AAPI communities in California was essential to successfully targeting messaging and ad buys where they would be most effective, communicating in Vietnamese, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese radio), Korean, and Tagalog across the state.

The Results: PWM's simple but effective spots broke through the noise to show just how dangerous candy flavored tobaccos are to the health and future of the AAPI community.  The advertising campaign helped drive the Yes on 31 campaign to a 63% Election Night win, capping a year of progressive issue-based victories for Potomac Waves Media.