Evaluation Support - Tobacco Use in Popular Media Targeted to Youth

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) intends to award a sole source firm-fixed price purchase order contract to the Trust Initiative Foundation. The address is 900 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. This period of performance for this contract will be for 12 months. The statutory authority for this sole source acquisition is 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c)(1) in accordance with FAR Part 13.106-1(b)(1) only one responsible source reasonably available and no other supplies or services will satisfy the agency requirement. The NAICS Code for this procurement is 541720. The size standard is $22 Million dollars. The Government intends to purchase services for evaluation support of Tobacco Use in Popular Media Targeted to Youth. This requirement is in support of the NCCDPHP's Office on Smoking and Health (OSH). The purpose of this purchase order is to obtain contractor assistance to evaluate and monitor existing and emerging popular media platforms targeted to youth to identify the amount of tobacco use imagery. Media platforms include, but are not limited to, streaming television programming, music videos, movies, video games, and social media. While smoking rates have been declining for decades, tobacco imagery on screens and in pop culture - including TV, streaming, video games, movies and social media - contributes to contribute to the normalization of smoking and tobacco use. These images have influence, especially among youth and young adults, who are uniquely susceptible to social and environmental influences to use tobacco. The Surgeon General has concluded that there is a causal relationship between depictions of smoking in movies and the initiation of smoking among young persons. However, less is known about the extent and impact of other forms of media exposure. Notably, it is necessary to understand the reach of tobacco incidents in streaming and other media platforms. While smoking in TV programs has not been studied as extensively as tobacco imagery in movies, it is reasonable to conclude a similar harmful impact is possible. However, continued research will be necessary to understand how this exposure affects youth tobacco initiation and use. The first step in that research is to fully understand the extent of exposure. This requirement is necessary for the NCCDPHP/OSH to accomplish the CDC's mission. Only the Truth Initiative Foundation is capable of meeting the CDC's needs for this requirement. The Truth Initiative is the only national organization that is funding and conducting research on smoking in popular media, first reporting on the extent of tobacco use in streaming in 2018. Based on estimates of Truth's initial research, approximately 28 million young people were exposed to tobacco through television and streaming programs just from exposure from the most popular shows alone. That exposure is a significant public health concern because viewing tobacco use in on-screen entertainment media is a critical factor associated with normalizing tobacco use, which can lead young people to starting to smoke. The Truth Initiative Foundation is particularly well situated to conduct future research on this topic and has the infrastructure and expertise necessary to meet CDC's needs on this topic. Truth has a longstanding history of addressing youth tobacco use including numerous publications on the impact of marketing on youth. Truth is a trusted source of information on this topic as reflected by both their role in earned media and published scientific literature on this topic. The Truth Initiative Foundation has a long history of collaborating with OSH and CDC in addressing issues of public health importance related to youth tobacco use. Youth collaborates with CDC by working with states on tobacco control policy and has collaborated with numerous CDC staff on publications on topics which include media, evaluation and tobacco marketing and sales. No solicitation will be posted to FedBizOpps. We will only issue a solicitation to the Truth Initiative Foundation. Truth Initiative Foundation is the only source available to provide this services that will meet NCCDPHP/OSH's mission critical requirements. This notice of intent is not a request for proposal. A determination to compete this procurement based on response to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Contracting Officer. Interested parties who believe they possess the capability to satisfy this requirement should submit a capability statement demonstrating their ability to meet this requirement. All responses must be sent in writing to Mr. Tim Williams via email to TLWilliams3@cdc.gov using solicitation number 75D301-20-Q-71818 in the subject line, no later than 8:00am Eastern Time, June 4, 2020.