For decades, Big Tobacco has marketed its deadly and addictive products to teens like you. Thanks to a 2009 law passed by Congress, the Food and Drug Administration has restricted some forms of tobacco marketing. However, in the U.S. alone, tobacco marketing still totals $8.5 billion a year – nearly one million dollars each day. Their method may be more subtle, but their goal remains the same: to get young people like you to smoke.
Healthy Gallatin wants your help. We want to know: how is tobacco marketed to you? Do you see it in stores, magazines, or social media? What tobacco marketing tactics do you encounter in a day? A week? A month? Show us. The best part… You can get started anytime until Kick Butts Day (March 18th, 2015). In fact, the sooner you get started, the better!
Take photos of any tobacco marketing you encounter and upload those photos to Instagram. Your photos will be entered in the contest when they are hash tagged #TobaccoTargetsMe #reACTHealthyGallatin. The photos to 10 photos with the most ❤ will win an iTunes gift card.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE All teens ages 12-18 that reside in Gallatin County, MT are eligible to participate in the scavenger hunt. Winning photos will be selected by other participants and peers. The top 10 participants who submit photos with the most ❤ WIN an iTunes gift card. So upload as many photos as you can and vote on the #reActHealthyGallatin photos that best represent how tobacco is marketed to you.
YOU’LL NEED Smartphone with camera, Instagram, walking shoes!
PARTICIPATING IS EASY:
1. Download Instagram from the Apple App Store or from Google Play.
2. Take a photo with your smart-phone of any tobacco marketing you encounter. Keep your eyes peeled:
- At convenience stores, grocery stores, or pharmacies
- At the mall
- When you’re reading magazines or newspapers
- On social media
Note: Use common sense. Don’t take pictures where or when you’re not supposed to.
3. Upload your photo to Instagram. Tag your pictures #reACTHealthyGallatin and #TobaccoTargetsMe.
4. Write a brief description of the photo. Tell us what we’re looking at. Where did you take the picture – and how is it an example of Big Tobacco targeting kids? Don’t forget to include the city and state where you took the picture.
5. Your pictures will appear in the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids’ Kick Butts Day online gallery #TobaccoTargetsMe and the local (Gallatin County) online gallery #reACTHealthyGallatin. Note: Your Instagram feed must be public for this to work. We also encourage you to tell your friends about this project! The more people we have participating, the more powerful the message will be.
6. The contest ends on Kick Butts Day; March 18th, 2015 at 12:00 noon. The winning participant will be contacted by 2:00 PM March 18th through Instagram in the form of a comment from @HealthyGallatin with instructions on how to collect their prize. The comment will appear under your winning photo submission; so watch your Instagram account.
7. You can enter as many times as possible, but you can only win once. Prizes are limited to 1 iTunes gift card per participant.
No Instagram? No problem!
Email your photos to jen.macfarlane@gallatin.mt.gov and we will push them out on our own Instagram account, @HealthyGallatin.
In addition to your picture, please include the following information in your email: Your first name and last initial (so we can give you credit!) The town where you took the picture A brief description. Tell us what we’re looking at. How is it an example of Big Tobacco targeting kids?
WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR—EXAMPLES:
- Candy-flavored cigars
- Large tobacco advertisements outside convenience stores or gas stations
- Other tobacco products (new products including snus, and other smokeless)
- Colorful tobacco products/displays
- E-cigarettes
- Candy flavored e-cig refills
- Tobacco products/ads near candy
- Tobacco products near advertisements for candy or soda
- Discounted tobacco products
DO’S AND DON’TS
Do:
- You can enter as many times as you want. Submit a photo every time you see tobacco marketing. Each photo submitted will be counted as a separate entry for a chance to win an iTunes gift card.
- Write a description so we know the context of your submission.
- Be polite. If a store owner asks you what you are doing, tell him/her you are doing research on advertising for a project. If he/she asks you not to take photos, then don’t.
- ❤ on other photos that show the best examples of how Big Tobacco has marketed its deadly and addictive products to youth like you
- Tell your friends!
Don’t:
- DON’T Submit pictures of other people using tobacco.
- DON’T Take pictures in movie theaters.
- DON’T Submit irrelevant or inappropriate photos.
Have fun and good luck!
HELP! My pictures aren’t showing up in the gallery!
It may take a few days for your images to appear in the gallery. The Kick Butts Day team needs to approve the images to make sure that we’re not posting inappropriate materials. Other reasons why your images aren’t showing up:
You may have mis-typed #TobaccoTargetsMe or #reACTHealthyGallatin (An easy mistake on a small keyboard!)
In order for your photos to be searchable through #TobaccoTargetsMe and #reACTHealthyGallatin, you must set your privacy settings to share photos.
