A new ad campaign from a Denver marketing firm aims to dispel myths along with the cigarette smoke you can't see.

The "One Step" campaign by Cactus Marketing Communications features a series of billboards, print ads and TV and radio commercials. It lets parents know that stepping outside to smoke is the only way - aside from quitting - to keep their kids from being exposed to secondhand smoke at home.

Last year, after issuing a report saying there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke, the U.S. Surgeon General's office urged states to launch education campaigns, said Jodi Kopke, media director for STEPP - the State Tobacco Education and Prevention Partnership.

"They were especially worried about children and reaching parents who smoke around their kids," Kopke said.

Subsequent focus group research by Cactus, STEPP's agency of record since last year, found smoking parents tried to do the right things but didn't always know how, said Cactus strategic director Joe Conrad.

"Time and again we saw a pattern," Conrad said. "Most of those parents, a very high percentage, were taking steps to try and protect their kids, but they were just not doing the right things."

Most were cracking a window, turning on a fan or going into the next room. In the new campaign, those efforts translate into acts like the Windowsill Squat and the Smokescreen. The campaign uses gentle humor to urge parents to step outside instead of taking half measures that don't help.

STEPP, funded through a state tobacco tax, spent $570,000 on the campaign. In contrast, Kopke said, tobacco companies spend about $4 million weekly to advertise in Colorado.

The campaign comes with an educational component for pediatricians who are already having the conversation and preschool teachers who may be averse to bringing it up directly, Kopke said.

Other states' efforts were often scary and threatening - kind of creepy, Kopke said.

"It's such a touchy, sensitive subject for parents," she said. "We want to encourage them to protect their kids. If they're ready to take the next step and quit, that's great. But we really wanted to try and empower parents and not make them feel bad, because they're trying to do the right stuff."

forgrievej@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5191