Press Release

June 23 , 2008

Students create video messages countering big tobacco

SIMCOE MUSKOKA – A hard-hitting film short outlining the chemical additives in tobacco products that make it more appealing is the grand prize winner in a competition open to high school students run by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.

Students Robyn Pitocco, Craig Hepditch and Cheryl Chaput of St. Joan of Arc High School were awarded the first place prize in the Youth Stomp Out Tobacco media project for their video, “How Far Would You Go.” The team was overseen by teacher Eric Skelton.

This is the fifth year the media competition has been held in the region. The competition has been popular with students, with 28 entries submitted from across Simcoe and Muskoka, says Linda Quennell a public health nurse with the health unit’s tobacco program.

Second prize went to Keith LaPlume and Timothy Armstrong of St. Peter’s Secondary School for their video “The Facts Still Hurt,” and third place went to Sean Advent, Justin Walmsley, Jonathan Cortese and Jaz Kenny-Dowdall of St. Peter’s for their production “Anti-smoking commercial.” Both films were overseen by teacher advisor Dino Zorzi.

“The students are challenged to develop video or radio messages that will appeal to their peers, and identify the manipulative marketing tactics used by the tobacco industry to recruit new smokers,” Quennell says. “And as always, the ingenuity and quality these people put into their creations makes it hard to decide on a winner.”

Quennell says the competition helps raise awareness of those tactics, and develops healthy skepticism among young adults that will help them resist the marketing efforts of the tobacco industry.

“It really is alarming how much subtle messaging our youth are being hit with, from the role models they see smoking in Hollywood movies to candy-flavoured chewing tobacco,” she says.

Sponsors of the project, which was funded by Good for Life and Take Heart, included the health unit, the Simcoe County District School Board, Trillium Lakelands District School Board and the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board.