Reality Check

Take Action With TobaccoFreeKids.Org

January 2006

The tobacco industry has recently topped themselves by upping the amount they spend on advertising to $15.1 BILLION, up from $12.5 billion in 2002 with that much money clean drinking water could be provided for the whole WORLD!

The tobacco industry spends huge amounts of money to hook teens on their dangerous and deadly project.

Do you want to take action against big tobacco?

You can, just log onto www.tobaccofreekids.org and click on the icon on the left hand side that says "take action." This will allow you to sign up to be an E-Champion, you will get email updates that allow you to take action against the tobacco industry.

Many things are as easy as signing your name to a petition - sign up to be an E-Champion today!

Wyoming County Teens Are Recycling Big Tobacco’s Trash!

May 2005

For the past five months Reality Check has been taking notice of the number of ads that are in magazines that teens frequently read. According to the Master Settlement Agreement tobacco companies are not allowed to advertise in magazines that have a strong youth readership. Despite this ruling there are a ton of tobacco ads in magazines such as People, Rolling Stone, and Sports Illustrated, which are magazines teens read quite often.

So what are Reality Check teens doing about this? They’re taking action! Wyoming County Reality Check has been collecting tobacco ads from teen read magazines and will be using the ads to create pieces of artwork for the “Recycling Big Tobacco’s Trash” art contest! Art pieces will be created out of no less than 25 tobacco ads and the ads must be the focus of the piece of art. There are two age groups, one for youth ages 13-15 years old and one for youth ages 16-18 years old. The top piece of artwork in each age group will be displayed at an art show in Buffalo, New York on June 18th.

Reality Check is a statewide program for teens that educates and takes action against the tobacco industry to let them know teens are not their next generation of replacement smokers.

Teens Take Notice of Tobacco Ads in Magazines

March 2005

Reality Check teens from Wyoming County have been taking notice of how many tobacco advertisements are in magazines that school libraries carry. According to the Master Settlement Agreement, tobacco companies are not allowed to advertise in magazines that youth read. Despite this, middle and high school students are still exposed to many tobacco advertisements that are placed in magazines that youth read. In addition school libraries subscribe to magazines that are mainly youth and teen oriented, making it even more surprising that teens are exposed to the amount of tobacco advertisements that they are.

Reality Check teens visited two high schools and two middle schools in each county to complete the tobacco advertisement observations. On average Reality Check students found 25 advertisements per library in the magazines the library carried. One of the most surprising magazines that tobacco ads were found in was Sports Illustrated and the worst offender was hunting and sportsman magazines; one hunting magazine had eleven ads in just one issue!

The library observations were the first part of Reality Check’s Advertising, Sponsorship and Promotion (ASP) initiative. The ASP initiative is a statewide project that will look at how the tobacco industry uses advertising, sponsorship and promotion to advertise to teens and addict them to tobacco. Statewide results of the school library observations will be released within the next month. Reality Check is a program for teens that fights back against the tobacco industry to expose the way the tobacco industry markets their product to addict teens to become smokers. For more information about Reality Check visit www.realitycheckny.com.

Wyoming County Reality Check Receives Funding

November 2004

The Wyoming County Reality Check program of the Cornell Cooperative Extension has been refunded by the New York State Department of Health to continue programming for the next five years. The Reality Check program will receive $75,000 annually. The program is funded by the New York State Department of Health with monies obtained from the Master Settlement Agreement.

Reality Check is a youth empowerment/action program for teens, ages 13 through 18, that teaches youth about the tobacco industry and the marketing tactics they use to try to get teens to use tobacco. Reality Check educates teens to help them make more informed decisions about tobacco use. Reality Check teens meet monthly at the Cornell Cooperative Extension to plan and carry out Reality Check projects.

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