Want a smoke? Local teens say 'No Stank You'
Friday, January 18, 2008 5:33 AM PST
By Barbara LaBoe
The Daily news
Printable version
E-mail this articleTeenagers across the Lower Columbia region have a chance to see a free movie Saturday and learn about the dangers of smoking as part of the "No Stank You" campaign.
Local teens will "take over" the Three Rivers Mall Theater in Kelso on Saturday, offering educational materials and an interactive photo display. Teenagers from the Wahkiakum Drug, Alcohol, Tobacco Abuse Prevention team and the Cowlitz County Health Department's tobacco sales compliance team - which sends teens into stores to see if they can buy cigarettes - will participate.
The photo display will allow people to pose with a cardboard cutout of an aging cheerleader featured in one of the campaign's numerous ads. Those ads will run before every movie Saturday and also will be playing in the lobby, said Katie Gilliam of the GMMB advertising firm, which organizes the state's campaign.
In addition, any teen wearing one of the state's "No Stank You" T-shirts will get into a movie free between 1 and 8 p.m. In Wahkiakum County alone, that's at least 100 students after a Great American Smokeout Day T-shirt giveaway in November. Teens also have been able to go on-line and "earn" the shirts for the past year, Gilliam said.
Saturday's event is one of six across the state, Gilliam said.
Cowlitz County has above average smoking rates for all age groups, including teenagers, according to state surveys. In 2006, 24 percent of high school seniors and 18 percent of sophomores said they'd smoked in the past month.
For more details about the campaign, visit www.NoStankYou.com.
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