Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Great day for us today as we now have over 10,000 postcards signed in support of our SmokeOff campaign! The SmokeOff campaign targets OFCOM and asks the organisation to follow their own guidelines with regards to smoking on television. OFCOM guidelines state "Smoking must not be condoned, encouraged or glamourised in programmes likely to be widely seen or heard by under-18s unless there is editorial justification." Yet many programmes like Coronation Street and Eastenders regularly contain smoking scenes, at times when young people are watching.

Research shows that there is a close relationship between exposure to smoking on TV and the take up of smoking among 10 - 15 year olds.

We are not asking OFCOM to edit shows that have already been shown, rather to ensure that all future pre-watershed programmes are smoke free.

We are happy for historical figures to still smoke, for example Winston Churchill in Dr Who, and we are happy for smoking to be shown if the health consequences of smoking are also shown.

We now have 10,000 people who support us and we will be letting OFCOM know!

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Hey All!

Yesterday was National No Smoking Day and to show our support we printed an 'Open Letter' in the Liverpool Echo that made clear what the law is with regards to tobacco and children. We wanted to do this as we carried out some test purchases a couple of weeks ago in Liverpool City Centre and we were shocked to find that four out of five shops were happy to sell to us without even asking for ID - we are all under 18. We also know that many people are still confused about how old you have to be to buy cigarettes since the age rose to 18 in 2007 so we felt that it was important to give the facts. We wrote and designed the letter ourselves and were really pleased to see it in print! We hope you liked it too!

D-MYST The Agency