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Association for Nonsmokers – Minnesota |
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Publicizing Smoke-Free Restaurants: Clean those yellow tobacco stains off the walls, windows, and ventilation equipment. Then repaint and hold a grand reopening of your smoke-free establishment with all the bells and whistles you would use if you were opening a new restaurant. Have a celebration! Provide balloons for the kids, have a local musician play over the noon or dinner hour, hand out coupons for free beverages or for two-for-one specials. Be creative! Target your publicity to groups likely to be particularly drawn to a smoke-free environment: parents of young children, well educated, health conscious adults (Consider a promotion with a local health club.), and seniors. Update or add some new menu items (additions to the children's menu, specialty coffees, interesting pasta dishes) or special events (Sunday brunches or buffets) that would appeal to these groups. Throw a clean air party for a youth group in the neighborhood. Make it obvious that your restaurant cares about the health of kids. Take advantage of free publicity. Check to see whether tobacco control activists in your community publish a local directory of smoke-free restaurants and make sure that your establishment is listed. Suggest that the directory be distributed through Chambers of Commerce, tourist information sites, local libraries and community centers, faith institutions, inserts or advertisements in local newspapers, and the web site of your local tobacco control coalition. List yourself in the directory of Minnesota's smoke-free restaurants developed by the Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota (ANSR) <www.ansrmn.org>. Fill out the form to have your restaurant listed or call 651-646-3005 or 866 345-9222. This site gets 10,000 hits each month. Users are most active on Thursdays and Fridays, when they make plans for the weekend. Check out other marketing ideas in industry publications or at a local college. Issue a challenge to other local restaurants and other businesses. Announce your willingness to go that extra mile for the health of the community and publicly challenge others in your community to do the same. Prepared by |
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