The truth campaign was launched in 2000 by the American Legacy Foundation to expose tobacco-industry deception to teenagers.
The campaign grew out of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between U.S. states and major tobacco companies. The settlement created the American Legacy Foundation, later renamed Truth Initiative, and provided a basis for a national youth anti-smoking effort. Its advertisements used direct language, unusual imagery, and facts about tobacco companies and cigarette marketing.
Rather than relying only on traditional health warnings, truth presented smoking as a form of corporate manipulation. That strategy aimed to make rejecting cigarettes feel independent and socially meaningful. The campaign became particularly recognizable among younger audiences through television, outdoor, print, and digital advertising.
The brand styling is commonly written as lowercase “truth.” It is an anti-tobacco campaign, not a cigarette brand. Research has credited the campaign with contributing to declines in youth smoking, although smoking rates are also influenced by taxation, regulation, education, and other public-health measures.