The following media events ideas can be part of a news conference where coalitions
introduce community, school, worksite, and health site tobacco control activities,
including new policies or coalition programs. For more details please contact
tobaccoinfo@cdc.gov.
Trash Tobacco
This event requires an "old fashioned" kind of garbage truck that pushes
garbage down from the back. Mock cigarettes can be decorated from large 3-foot
paper cardboard tubes, such as empty carpet tubing. With media assembled, community
leaders, local elected officials, or other spokespeople toss these “cigarettes”
into the garbage truck and lower the apparatus to crush them.
Crush the Addiction
This activity involves a steamroller. Students place several 6-foot-long
“cigarettes” in front of the roller. They can use empty carpet tubes or cardboard
tubes decorated to look like cigarettes. The goal is for the steamroller to
crush the fake cigarettes. Decorate the steamroller with program logos.
Ice Tobacco
This activity can involve the school or community hockey team. The idea is
to have hockey players slam pucks into a large ice cigarette sculpture or large
mock cardboard box of fake cigarettes to give tobacco the "cold shoulder."
Kick Tobacco
In this activity, a football team from the local high school, college or
NFL has its member(s) kick a football into or through a huge mock pack of cigarettes.
A variation of this activity is to work with a local fire department to have
a fire truck present with a fireman extinguishing a "smoking" huge mock pack
of cigarettes, to "Put Out the Addiction."
Great American Bubble Gum Blowout
This media event is a great elementary school activity. The goal is to have
a well-known mascot from a local sports team measure the size of the bubbles
that kids blow with their sugar-free bubble gum. Large bubbles demonstrate healthy
lungs.
Cold Turkey
Advocates can work with local restaurants of the national Subway chain to
arrange for an award of a cold turkey sub for every pack of cigarettes that
is turned in during the Great American Smokeout (GASO). This activity offers the opportunity to demonstrate
a public/private community partnership. Arrangements may also be made for tobacco
control spokespersons to appear on local television and radio shows to promote
going "cold turkey" the day of the Great American Smokeout. Cold turkey subs could also
be offered on school lunch or restaurant menus in local communities.
Promoting Smoking Cessation Programs
GASO is an excellent opportunity to team with providers of smoking cessation
programs, especially those targeted to youth, for promotions. All students who
smoke should be urged to pledge not to smoke on that day. School-based activities
could also incorporate the “buddy system” or “Adopt-A-Smoker,” where smokers
who pledge to go smoke-free are teamed with partners who provide support. This
activity can be conducted jointly with local American Cancer Society chapters or other organizations
that offer cessation programs.
Pharmacy Smokeout Challenge
Work with local pharmacies to secure their promise not to sell tobacco and
to provide cessation literature on GASO.
Hands Off Tobacco
In this activity, children put their hands in washable paint and place their
handprints on a large banner in the shape of an American flag or the international
no-smoking symbol. The end product represents a pledge to stay tobacco-free.
Once completed, the banner can be displayed at a school or other prominent community
location.
Breaking the Chain of Tobacco
Students rally at the state capitol dressed in prison costumes, including
connecting paper chains to symbolize breaking the addiction of tobacco. The
chain links can feature the names of community residents who have died from
tobacco. Following the ceremony, the chain can be wrapped around the state capitol.
= Link to a PDF document
= Link to nonfederal Web site