{"id":776736,"date":"2026-07-03T02:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/776736\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T02:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T02:30:14","slug":"tobacco-company-launches-put-your-lighters-down-campaign-for-calgary-stampede","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/776736\/","title":{"rendered":"Tobacco company launches \u201cput your lighters down\u201d campaign for Calgary Stampede"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Unsmoke.ca<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Calgary Stampede happening this weekend, Rothmans Benson and Hedges, one of the largest tobacco companies in Canada, launched an educational campaign to help encourage Stampede goers to quit smoking and switch to less harmful smoke-free nicotine alternatives.<\/p>\n

The tobacco company\u2019s \u201cUnsmoke Canada\u201d initiative will run its \u201cPut Your Lighters Down\u201d awareness campaign, themed towards the annual Calgary Stampede, across the city in the hopes of convincing adults who are still smoking to put down combustible tobacco for good.<\/p>\n

The ads, which will be posted around Calgary, direct readers to an online resource<\/a> that explains the differences between cigarettes and smoke-free alternatives, including heated tobacco products, vaping products and nicotine pouches.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalgary Stampede is a moment when the city comes together, and it gives us an opportunity to reach adult smokers with a clear message: put your lighter down and get informed,\u201d Milena Trentadue, the managing director at Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, said in a news release. \u201cQuitting is always the best choice, but adults who would otherwise continue smoking should be able to understand the differences between cigarettes and smoke-free alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Though the resource states that non-smoke alternatives are less harmful than combustible tobacco, it also notes that whether it be heated tobacco, vapes or nicotine pouches, none of the options are \u201crisk-free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, Canada has an estimated nearly four million smokers. Health Canada aims to reduce tobacco use to less than five per cent of the Canadian population by 2035.<\/p>\n

In January, Health Canada admitted that half of those who quit smoking used nicotine replacements. At the same time, Consumer\u2019s Choice Centre\u2019s North American Affairs manager, David Clement, told Juno News that multiple public health bodies in Canada and England now say vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking,<\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth Canada admits half of those who quit smoking used nicotine replacements<\/a><\/p>\n

The news release notes that Canadian regulations<\/a> prevent adult smokers from accessing information about the relative risks of smoke-free products compared to combustible cigarettes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdults who smoke deserve information that helps them make decisions based on facts, not guesswork,\u201d Kory McDonald, the head of corporate affairs at Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, said in a statement. \u201cThis campaign is about awareness, adult choice and the need for policies that better reflect the fundamental difference between products that burn and products that do not.<\/p>\n

\"ConservativesConservatives vow to allow sales of nicotine pouches at gas stations, convenience stores<\/a>\"ConservativesConservatives push back against Liberal nicotine pouch ban<\/a><\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unsmoke.ca Ahead of the Calgary Stampede happening this weekend, Rothmans Benson and Hedges, one of the largest tobacco…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-776736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}