Events sponsored by the Burlington Partnership for a
Healthy Community in Burlington.
Movie at the Burlington Boys and Girls Club:
4:00-6:00pm on Tuesday March 24th. Youth at the club watched a recent age appropriate movie release with smoking depicted. They talked before and after the movie about their opinions regarding smoking in the movies. The youth blew horns while viewing whenever they saw someone smoking, or there was a reference to cigarettes.
Chalking the Sidewalks:
Coalition members and Burlington High School students used sidewalk chalk to write messages around the Burlington area sidewalks with information about the effects of smoking with particular focus on the movie theatre and locations that sell video rentals.
Guess What?
Nearly four out of five movies depict smoking – this despite the fact that tobacco companies have been banned from paid product placement in the movies for 10 years.
- 75% of movies created for young teens (those rated PG-13) show tobacco use.
Non-smoking teens whose favorite stars frequently smoke on screen are 16 times more likely to have positive attitudes about smoking in the future.
Every day, more than 1,000 teens in the U.S. smoke their first cigarette because of seeing smoking in the movies.
Tobacco companies spend an estimated $2,820,000 million in Vermont each year, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, to market their products – this doesn’t include the “free” advertising when their products just happen to show up in movies seen by kids and adults.
Be in control of what goes into YOUR head! Check out www.ovx.org (Our Voices Exposed) to learn more, make your own movies, choose your own actors and scenes, pick the products to be “placed” in your movies, and learn about Big Tobacco’s sneaky marketing tactics.
