During the 1990s, the tobacco industry aggressively increased its advertising and promotional campaigns targeting minorities. In 2000, GEOVISION produced an Emmy award-winning campaign in English and Spanish to prevent and reduce tobacco use among minority adult males. The campaign featured Ronaldo Martinez, a Puerto Rican man who lost his voice due to throat cancer at the age of 39. The spots showed that smoking can have profound effects on the quality of life of a relatively young person.

Results

• A survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts, Boston showed that the award-winning "Ronaldo" ads had the highest recall of any spots in the Tobacco Education Campaign.
• The campaigns were distinguished with two New England EMMYs for Best Public Service Campaign and a national Gabriel Award for best PSA.
• In 2006, when the New York City Department of Health aired the spots, it received nearly 15,000 calls for quit-smoking services - tripling the amount received in the same time period in 2005. Another flight in 2007 produced a record 20,000 requests for nicotine patches and gum. The power of the personal stories portrayed in the spots led several major national and New York media outlets, including ABC's Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, and the New York Daily News, to cover the campaign's effectiveness in persuading New Yorkers to quit.