The city’s latest public health push meets young New Yorkers where they are — on social media, at corner delis, and on the streets they walk every day.
New York City is taking its fight against youth vaping directly to the sidewalks, screens, and storefronts where teenagers spend their time. On April 27, 2026, the NYC Health Department officially launched “Drop the Vape,” a paid citywide media campaign designed to reach teens where traditional public health messaging often falls short — and to connect them with free resources to quit.
The campaign arrives as city health officials continue to grapple with vaping rates among young people that remain well above cigarette use levels. In 2023, 14 percent of public high school students in New York City reported vaping — more than three times the rate of youth cigarette smoking. That gap reflects a decade-long shift in how nicotine reaches young people, driven in large part by the aggressive marketing tactics of e-cigarette companies that have long positioned their products as modern, low-risk alternatives.
Health officials are pushing back with urgency.
What the Campaign Does
“Drop the Vape” is built around the reality that most teenagers who vape were never smokers to begin with. While vaping companies often promote their products as an alternative for people who smoke, the vast majority of youth who vape have never previously smoked. That data point reshapes the public health framing significantly: this is not a harm-reduction story. For most teenagers, vaping is the first point of entry into nicotine addiction — not an exit from cigarettes.
The campaign runs citywide in English, Spanish, and Chinese through May 23 on social media and digital platforms, as well as LinkNYC kiosks and in delis near schools and youth organizations.
The placement strategy is deliberate. LinkNYC kiosks line the streets of every borough, functioning as one of the most visible public communication channels in the five boroughs. Delis near schools are a particularly pointed choice — they represent everyday community anchors in neighborhoods across Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Upper Manhattan, and are often among the retail environments closest to where students spend time before and after school hours.
Running the campaign in three languages ensures it reaches New York City’s full diversity of student populations, including communities where English-language-only campaigns have historically underperformed.
The Health Case for Acting Now
The medical argument behind the campaign is straightforward. Vaping can expose people to cancer-causing chemicals and toxic metals. Most vapes contain nicotine, which is addictive, especially for young people under age 25 since their brains are still developing.
That last point carries particular weight for public health advocates. Adolescent brain development continues well into a person’s mid-twenties, and nicotine exposure during that window has been linked to effects on attention, learning, and impulse control — in addition to the addiction itself. For a generation that grew up watching cigarette use decline, vaping arrived with none of the cultural stigma attached to traditional tobacco and considerable marketing sophistication aimed directly at young consumers.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald has been direct about the stakes. Speaking earlier this month during the rollout of a parallel statewide anti-vaping media effort, McDonald said that nicotine’s addictive pull is the core problem driving youth uptake — and that any meaningful intervention has to address the grip of addiction before it fully sets in.
Free Support, No Barriers
A central component of the campaign is directing teens to free quit support already available through city and state programs. The Health Department is emphasizing that help is accessible regardless of a young person’s readiness to quit — a recognition that behavior change rarely happens in a single step.
The city’s approach aligns with what public health research increasingly shows about effective cessation messaging: meeting people where they are, removing financial barriers to support, and offering resources in the languages communities actually speak. For teenagers navigating peer pressure, social media culture, and easy access to vape products, the campaign functions as a visible signal that the city sees the problem and has tools ready.
Part of a Broader Statewide Push
The NYC Health Department’s campaign does not stand alone. At the state level, Governor Kathy Hochul launched a parallel anti-vaping public awareness campaign in late March 2026, promoting the DropTheVape text program — a free, confidential service tailored for youth seeking support to stop vaping and other nicotine products. That same month, police in Nassau and Orange counties seized more than 28,000 pounds of illicit vapor products linked to a major Buffalo-area distributor, following a three-month investigation by the state Health Department’s Bureau of Investigations.
Enforcement, education, and free cessation support are now running simultaneously — a coordinated public health approach that city and state officials have been building toward for several years.
For New York City specifically, the “Drop the Vape” campaign represents a push to make the consequences of vaping legible to the teenagers most at risk, in the languages they speak and the spaces they actually inhabit. The campaign runs through May 23, 2026.
Teens and young adults in New York City seeking free vaping cessation support can visit nyc.gov or contact the New York State Quitline at 1-866-NY-QUITS.
