Ketchum has won a competitive bid to guide PR for the Legacy anti-smoking drive.

truthThe Washington, D.C.-based entity created under the 1998 tobacco settlement includes the long-running "truth" campaign to end youth smoking and "EX" push to get smokers to quit.

There was no PR incumbent for the work, although Porter Novelli and GolinHarris have handled the campaign in the past. Pile + Company, Boston, conducted the review.

Legacy in February replaced its advertising led by Arnold Worldwide with 72andSunny (creative) and MediaCom (media planning/buying). Legacy CEO Robin Koval pointed to a Surgeon General report in January that urged the campaign to add "innovative and disruptive techniques" to the existing methods.

Julia Cartwright, senior VP of communications at Legacy, said: "We consider ourselves tremendously fortunate to align these top agencies for the first time on tobacco – and address in tandem what we consider is the nation’s number one public health challenge."

The agency moves also come as electronic cigarettes pose a new challenge to the anti-smoking movement.