On September 30, 2018, over 30 Reality Check Youth Leaders and tobacco control staff from across 15 counties – Cortland, Tompkins, Chenango, Broome, Tioga, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Cayuga, Oswego, Onondaga, Ontario, Seneca, Wayne, and Yates – gathered at Orenda Springs Experiential Learning Center in Marcellus, NY to meet, bond, organize and act against Big Tobacco. Reality Check held a day long training for new and current Reality Check youth members. Youth, between the

Last week in Cazenovia, members of the Reality Check Program of Cortland, Tompkins & Chenango Counties joined 150 Reality Check teens representing every region of New York State to rally against what they say is deceitful marketing by the tobacco industry that kids find appealing. Protesting that they have #SeenEnoughTobacco, youth speakers cited 13 as the average age of a new smoker in the state, calling attention to the problem of tobacco marketing in stores where kids can

While there are several factors that contribute to youth smoking, exposure to smoking in movies is a powerful pro-tobacco influence on youth today, accounting for the recruitment of half of all new adolescent smokers. The tobacco industry uses tobacco imagery and brand identification on screen to both normalize and glamorize tobacco use. With teens consuming more media than ever, the media viewed is often unregulated, giving the tobacco industry direct access to teens’ daily