Using Applied Improvisation To Address The Teen Vaping Crisis

Tobacco companies are brilliant at marketing. They convinced generations to think of smoking as cool, manly, sophisticated and stylish, making it such a normal part of the culture that ash trays were everywhere, including the doctors’ offices where people were being treated for the illnesses it caused. They excel at messaging and experiential advertising, ie.g. getting a consumer to interact with their product at concerts, bars and other venues, which is particularly effective for normalizing its use and associating it with fun social events. Now that cigarette-smoking is banned almost everywhere and its terrible threats to health undeniable, the industry has become even more innovative. They sell e-cigarettes and vaping products for their life-saving impact, since removing tar from the nicotine delivery system is a win-win. But what is a solution for adults addicted to nicotine is creating a public health epidemic among teens, becauses vaping devices — particularly ones that look like a USB drive have a high-intensity nicotine “hit” to which the adolescent brain is especially vulnerable.

“The school systems had essentially been enjoying a notable decline in adolescent tobacco use to the point that they had an all time low in on-campus violations of the school policy,” states John Martin, a Public Health Educator specializing in creative approaches to teaching kids and teens about a wide range of health-related topics. “Then the tobacco industry introduced vaping: a method of using tobacco or other drugs in a way that avoided smoke detectors, did not have an odor, and could be used in the back of a classroom or bus without detection. And it caught on like a fad. Except it is a fad that has nicotine, a highly addicting drug fueling return to its use.”

But the power of experience can also be leveraged to help teens, who are responsive to social connection combined with the fun and high level of engagement provided by creative games and exercises with both purpose and novelty. Applied Improvisation is a highly experiential way to engage with information and explore it in a positive social environment. Creative experiences like this are the fast-track to expanding neuronal connections throughout the brain, because they integrate diverse “reward” brain circuitry in a single action or phase of skill development. The bonus of the “reward” make a behavior more appealing and increase the likelihood we will want to do it again. “The ‘yes…and’ principle and other tenets of applied improv bring the full force of their brilliance to bear on this problem,” Martin reports. “One example is the ‘contrast and compare’ exercise. Students make statements they believe are true about vaping — like ‘I love my flavors, they shouldn’t regulate them’ — and we say ‘yes’ to it, then add an ‘and” that contrasts with it — ‘tobacco companies said the same thing about cigarettes.’ We know that every myth that kids hear and believe is out of the same playbook tobacco companies have always used: denial, this product kills you slower than that one, trust us, there is only water vapor, nicotine is not addicting, we are not after kids, and others. We have to help kids recognize that they are the industry’s future replacement smokers. We say: The social media brings the youth to the doorway. The flavors bring them through the doorway. The nicotine slams it shut on them.”

Science shows that the adolescent brain is still developing and impulse control and decision making/cause and effect skills are not fully integrated until about age 25. This makes teens particularly vulnerable to marketing and cultural fads. “Using applied improvisation methods, we are able to ignite the same kind of excitement and interest in the teen brain that marketing campaigns are aiming for, but use it to raise awareness about ways that the industry targets them, “ Martin explains. Vape culture is evolving faster than health regulation. Applied Improvisation exercises are creative experiences that may help keep pace with it, supplying teens with knowledge and skills their developing brains need to think for themselves.