Health Center wraps bus with tobacco-free ad

IU is a tobacco-free campus, and starting this Thursday, the IU campuses buses will promote this.

In celebration of the new buses, which will be wrapped in a tobacco-free campus logo similar to those of the buses for the IU Student Association and the IU Theatre and Drama Department, the IU Health Center is hosting a Tobacco-free Bus Roll Out Celebration at noon on Thursday.

The front lawn of the IU Health Center, facing 10th Street, will have music and refreshments. Dignitaries from state and local groups will be present as well as speakers including IU’s Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Dick McKaig.

Students are encouraged to come and support the effort to make IU a healthy place to learn, work and live.

“The buses are our next big effort to reach students and let them know that we are here,” said Neva Cottam, tobacco cessation educator for the IU Health Center. “It’s a very effective mechanism to advertise to IU students and to reach out to the target population that is out on the streets. The message hasn’t gotten out that IU is a tobacco-free campus.”

External funding from the Bloomington Hospital Foundation and a master tobacco settlement fund from the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation has helped make the wrapped buses possible.

The wrapped advertisement costs about $10,000, Cottam said.

Cottam said they have previously advertised inside the campus buses, but wrapping the outside is the best type of advertisement and will be there for an entire year.   
“It is a great way for IU students to know that the IU Health Center offers free help to students,” Cottam said.

Cathlene Hansen, director of Health and Wellness Education at the IU Health Center, said she is pleased that IU provides friendly enforcement.

She said the 1-800-QUITNOW help line advertised on the buses provides immediate help. With the assistance of the Bloomington Hospital, the health center also provides free nicotine replacement therapy for students.

“Yes, it is a policy to promote healthy behavior, but since it is usually something people aren’t happy about, we let them know we are here to help,” Hansen said. “The bus is the best public service announcement we have ever had.”