Visualizing Vaping:

Ads, Memes, Health, and You

By Rebecca C. Zimmerman

Target Audience 0-2*   3-5* Gr. K-3*  Gr.4-5 * Gr. 6-8*  Gr. 9-10* Gr. 11-12*  Parents* Teachers*

Library
Support literacy, lifelong learning, civic engagement, and cultural awareness
Goal
Making teens feel empowered to creativity correct misinformation about e-
Other Goal cigarettes and vaping in their communities
Guilford County’s Department of Health and Human Services and Moses Cone
Partner(s) Hospital
OUTCOMES INDICATORS (how measured)
1. Teens will ● Observe 80% of participants writing down who at least one
understand how advertisement was aimed at or how it made them feel.
advertisements ● Observe 30% of participants speaking in discussion about who the shown
target advertisements were aimed at, how the ads made them feel, and/or
communities. what that might mean.
  ● Observe 50% of participants raising their hand when asked if they
recognized or understood the meme “You are not immune to
propaganda.”
2. Teens will ● Observe 80% of participants writing down what they already know or
understand want to know about vaping or e-cigarettes.
current statistics ● Observe 80% of participants nodding their heads, raising their hands, or
and scientific speaking to respond to guest speaker questions.
research about e- ● Observe 30% of participants raising their hand to ask questions of guest
cigarettes and speakers.
vaping. ● Observe 50% of participants raising their hand to talk about a new fact
they learned from the guest speakers.
● Observe 80% of participants taking home factual handouts on e-
cigarettes and vaping at the end of the program.
3. Students will ● Observe 80% of participants working on their own or in groups to create
act as community pieces of publicity art to correct community misconceptions about e-
leaders to inform cigarettes and vaping.
communities at ● Observe 60% of participants deciding where and how they want their
risk about e- publicity art to be displayed.
cigarettes, ● Observe 50% of participants’ publicity art actively displayed at chosen
vaping, and locations.
misconceptions
those
communities
might have.
DESCRIPTION OF SERVICE, PROGRAM, ACTIVITY
 
 Visualizing Vaping:
Ads, Memes, Health, and You
By Rebecca C. Zimmerman
●  Set up the room with chairs in the middle and the table with art supplies/the technology
stations with computers, printer, and scanner at the back.
● Post two advertisements from the cited Fallin‐Bennett, Aleshire, Scott, and Lee article on the
walls. Post two easel or poster board sheets on each side of them labeled “Who is This Ad
Aimed At?” and “How Does This Ad Make You Feel?”
● At the other end of the room post two more easel or poster board sheets label “What Do You
Already Know About Vaping and E-Cigarettes?” and “What Do You Want to Know About
Vaping and E-Cigarettes?”
● Meet teen participants at the door, welcoming them inside. Ask them to add their input to as
many of the easel or poster board sheets as they can with the markers provided.
● Give participants 12 minutes to arrive, mingle, write down their ideas, and take their seats.
● Then, bring the ads to the front of the room to start discussing them. Use the ideas already
written down whenever the conversation fades.
● Bring up the idea that the ads were specifically aimed at marginalized groups (African
Americans and LGBTQ+ individuals) to make them feel included or “cool” as part of a larger
community specifically because these groups often feel excluded from the mainstream.
Encourage teens to question whether this advertising tactic is fair or if it says anything real
about the product that the ads are portraying.
● Show participants the cited meme “You are not immune to propaganda” and ask them to
explain what it means.
● Move the conversation to e-cigarettes saying that there are a lot of things that we know or
think we know about e-cigarettes, but there is also a lot of misinformation out there targeted
specifically at groups like teens, African Americans, and LGBTQ+ people. Our first step in
becoming masters of our own fate is figuring out the facts from fiction.
● Introduce the guest speakers from Moses Cone Hospital and the Guilford County Department
of Health and Human Services to each present facts about e-cigarettes and vaping that they
know from their areas of expertise.
● Encourage participants to ask questions, especially about what they think they know. Use
the written sheets from the beginning if necessary.
● After guest speaker presentations, ask participants to raise their hand and share one thing
they learned or didn’t know before.
● Give participants statistics from the cited sources about how e-cigarettes and vaping are
affecting marginalized groups in Greensboro, NC and tell them that you’re looking forward to
seeing how they can help be community leaders in changing these trends.
● Point out that while images, memes, and ads can create powerful feelings of misinformation,
they can also correct that information and teach people things they didn’t think they needed
to know.
● Tell participants that, for the rest of the program, they will be working with the guest
speakers to create publicity campaigns to distribute around Greensboro to help educate
people about e-cigarettes and vaping.
● Tell teens that they are the ones who know who needs to know what best because they are a
part of the communities that advertising companies are trying to trick.
 Visualizing Vaping:
Ads, Memes, Health, and You
By Rebecca C. Zimmerman
● Let participants know that they can make collages, digital art, or traditional art or a
combination of these things to get their message across. The adults in the room are there to
answer questions, but it is up to the participants to decide who they want to target in their
art, where they want their art to be displayed, and what they want to make.
● Assist teens for the rest of the program.
● At the end, give the guest speakers and participants separate rounds of applause for being
leaders in their communities.
● Give all participants copies of their artwork and a handout (either from the NC DHHS website
cited or from your partner organizations) about e-cigarettes and vaping.
● Encourage teens to use this process elsewhere in their lives, questioning what they think they
know, talking to other adults and experts about things in their communities, and looking for
ways they might be able to make a difference.
 
INPUTS OUTPUTS
● At least one guest speaker from Moses ● Number of attendees
Cone Hospital ● Number of hand-outs taken
● At least one guests speaker from the ● Number of publicity pieces created
Guilford County Department of Health ● Number of publicity pieces eventually
and Human Services displayed
● At least 20 minutes before and after the ● Number of questions asked to our
program for set up and clean up partner speakers
● Assorted colored markers
● At least 6 poster board or easel sheets
● Traditional art supplies including large
sheets of paper, crayons, markets, and
colored pencils
● Collage materials including magazines,
scissors, and glue sticks
● Access to at least 3 computers, a color
printer, and a scanner
● Two color print-outs of e-cigarette
advertisements
● Chairs for speakers and attendees
● At least one table
● Handouts from partners and/or NC DHHS
EVALUATION OF OUTCOMES BY INDICATORS
1. 
 
2. 
  
3. 
 
 Visualizing Vaping:
Ads, Memes, Health, and You
By Rebecca C. Zimmerman
SHARE HOW & WHY
EVALUATION
WITH
 The Greensboro Try to get the newspaper to cover the program as part of their local news
News & Record briefing to show how local government and businesses can work together with
teens to impact community issues; this promotes good press for all partners
involved and allows teens to see themselves portrayed as leaders in a larger
narrative.
 North Carolina  The NC DHHS likes to feature positive stories and examples of successful
Department of publicity art on their website. This would be a great example for them to use. It
Health and would also allow other libraries and organizations to use this program as a
Human Services pattern for their own public health initiatives.