Reality Check NY
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Reality Check (RC) is a teen-led anti-tobacco movement in New York State. Thousands of teens between the ages of 13 and 18 participate in Reality Check and work towards the organization's stated purpose of alerting other teens about their belief that the tobacco industry specifically markets to minors. Their main goals are to deglamorize tobacco use among teens and to decrease tobacco advertising which they believe targets teens.
Reality Check has been involved in combating depictions of smoking in movies, point of purchase(pop), and tobacco advertising found in the school setting. Reality Check's main focus is currently on how they believe that the tobacco industry targets teens through advertising, sponsorship and promotion (ASP) of their product through any form of media or public event.
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[edit] History
Reality Check was established in 2000 by the New York State Department of Health as the state's first anti-tobacco movement that uses the states youth to promote it's message calling itself "youth led". In June of 2000, 150 teens from across the state gathered in central New York and worked to name, shape, form, and design what would become a state health department run program called Reality Check. Since its inception, Reality Check has gained a following of several thousand teenagers across New York State. There are active and defunct chapters in all 62 counties in New York State
[edit] Reality Checks's Key Message
Reality Check believes that as a result of selling a deadly product, the tobacco industry needs a generation of new costumers. They believe as a result, the tobacco industry actively targets teens with various forms of advertising. According to the Master Settlement Agreement, an agreement several of the largest tobacco companies made with 46 of the 50 United States, the tobacco industry would no longer target teens and would be prohibited from doing so by law. According to Reality Check, the tobacco industry has not honored this agreement, and continues to actively target teens. Several state wide initiatives have been born, with this stance as their foundation.
[edit] Ways in Which the Tobacco Industry Targets Teens
Reality Check believes the tobacco Industry targets teens in a plethora of different ways. Some that they believe are the most prevalent are:
- Point of Purchase Advertising Advertising placed at the location of businesses which sell tobacco products are considered to be "Point of Purchase" (POP) ads. Such ads include those found outside gas stations in the form of signs often stuck in the lawn, or affixed to an elevated surface such as a lamp post or wall. POP advertisements can also be found within business. Often representatives from various tobacco companies that have their advertisements placed in a store will direct where the advertisements are to be placed on a monthly basis. Reality Check claims that said advertisements have been deliberately placed low to the ground, and near candy and other snacks to attract the attention of children.
- Magazine Advertising The tobacco industry has also been known to market their product heavily in various periodicals. It is Reality Check's belief that such advertisements should not be allowed in school libraries, or in magazines with a high percentage of youth readership. Recently Reality Check worked with NY State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the National Association of Attorneys General to adopt policies with Time, Newsweek, People, Sports Illustrated, and the tobacco industries to remove all tobacco advertising in copies of these magazines available in school settings.
[edit] Criticisms of Reality Check
[edit] Marketing style
Reality Check has come under fire by some, both smokers and non-smokers alike, for a number of their practices. Some believe their events focus on giving away free merchandise and are ineffective and needless, and that their events attract far too many teens interested in socializing rather than the cause itself. These methods have been criticized for being very much the same as the marketing practices of the tobacco companies that they decry as manipulative, particularly in their marketing to teens. Reality Check itself feels that their brand of marketing is vastly different than that of the tobacco companies, and that the causes are too different to compare marketing styles. This criticism has nonetheless led to some charges of hypocrisy toward the movement, particularly what some see as the inherent contradiction between their slogan "We won't be bought" and their focus on giving away free merchandise to attract teens.
[edit] Censorship
Their campaigns against smoking in movies, much like those of organizations such as Smoke Free Movies, are seen by some to be a form of censorship, and stifling towards filmmakers; some also suggest that smoking in movies is not necessarily a form of product placement. Smoke Free Movies themselves has responded to such criticism in ads.
[edit] Teen Led
Reality Check is a teen led movement. Some say thats a lie but the adults with us do not lead it. It is a teen led adult supported group.
