Chittenango Middle School students host Smoke-Free Movie Event
On Thursday, March 8, Chittenango Middle School students hosted a SmSmoke-Freeovie Event at their school, hoping to raise awareness about the way the tobacco industry markets their products. The seventh- and eighth-grade students have been planning this event since January.
“Since it is International Week of Action, we are showing a movie and having students sign a letter to send to the Motion Picture Association of America,” said Bailey Foster, a Reality Check member at Chittenango Middle School. “We want students to realize it is important to continue to keep tobacco out of movies.”
The students decided to show Moana, a movie put out by Disney. Disney has decided that all of their youth-rated films will have no smoking. Because of this, the students had a table set up so people could sign a letter to the Motion Picture Association of America, asking them to consider this kind of policy for all studios.
The letters will be cc’d to all movie studio parent companies.
Smoking in movies normalizes and glamorizes tobacco use and these students are working to change the social norms surrounding tobacco and show the truth about a tobacco habit.
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