Smoking Out Big Tabacco!

May 16, 2005
Embargoed to: Monday, May 16, 2005

Contact:
Rob Williams, ACME President
802.279.3364 / robw@acmecoalition.org

Bob McCannon, ACME Vice President
505.839-9702 / mccannon@flash.net

Call To Action: Teachers! Students! Public Health Advocates!
ACME launches “SMOKING OUT BIG TOBACCO!”
Global Grassroots Youth Production “Butts-Kicking Media” Campaign: 2005-2006

The Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) today launches a global “Butts Kicking Media” campaign, seeking student-made media that highlights the tobacco industry’s marketing of its products to the world’s young people. ACME Board President Rob Williams explains, "For the past fifty years, the tobacco industry has targeted children with the most powerful advertising and public relations campaigns in history, using Hollywood and Big Media to mass market it’s addictive poisons."

According to ACME Vice President and veteran anti-tobacco media educator Bob McCannon, "Even the current Philip Morris anti-tobacco campaign is a fraud--a cunning political appeal that sends one message to adults and a different one to rebellious teens." McCannon continues, "The most successful anti-smoking campaigns utilize the talents of youth. ACME hopes to enlist many of the world’s young people in a concerted effort to smoke out Big Tobacco."

Between now and May 2006, ACME is asking young people from around the globe to send us their smoke-free print ads and mini-movie counter ads (30 seconds to 2 minutes in length) that “smoke out” (tell the truth about) Big Tobacco’s advertising and marketing efforts. The contest features 2 categories:

1. ENTIRELY student-made PRINT POSTER
2. ENTIRELY student-made SHORT VIDEO

Our judges will announce one GRAND PRIZE winner from each of the categories by June 15, 2006. The creators of each winning entry will receive:

* $100 cash!
* A “Blowing Away Big Tobacco’s Big Lies” data CD-ROM for your school!
* Publicity at ACME’s web site!
* Public acclaim at ACME’s 2006 national media conference!

ACME will sponsor a world premiere of smoke-free student media winners at the October 2006 ACME Summit in Burlington, Vermont!

ACME’s SMOKING OUT BIG TOBACCO campaign stands as "a unique and creative approach that represents a major step forward in enlisting students in the battle against Big Tobacco,” explains Rev. Jesse Brown, President of the Coalition for World No Tobacco Day, which provided a grant to help fund the campaign.

For more information about the SMOKING OUT BIG TOBACCO campaign, visit ACME’s