The Smokefree Movies Initiative: eliminating smoking imagery from youth-rated films

"The Smokefree Movies Initiative: eliminating smoking imagery from youth-rated films." Audience: This workshop will be geared toward both a youth (ages 11-18) and an adult audience. To be successful, the workshop, and the projects presented, will require guidance of the youth involved by their adult coordinators. Key Points: This workshop will begin with a powerpoint presentation overview of the history of smoking imagery and paid product placement in movies: * The close relationship between Hollywood and the tobacco industry, which began in the late 1920s, is currently the most influential form of tobacco advertising, credited with recruiting 390,000 new teen smokers each year. * When television and radio tobacco commercials were banned in 1970, tobacco companies renewed their efforts to compete for placement in Hollywood movies. We will discuss how tobacco control advocates across the country began to fight back, citing examples from my experience with the Smokefree Movies Project, UCSF, www.smokefreemovies.edu., and Reality Check in my home state of New York. Educational Experience: * Empower youth advocacy by demonstrating that the local efforts of youth activists have a positive impact on society. Benefits: * Participants will have a clear understanding of the history between Hollywood and Big Tobacco, and the 80 years of tobacco advertising in movies through paid product placement. * Participants will become familiar with the four policy recommendations of the Smokefree Movies initiative. * Participants will become familiar with the state film subsidy issue * Participants will take home action plans to implement three Smokefree Movies projects.