More than 350 New Mexico teens attended the 5th annual Fame & Shame Awards at the historic KiMo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque. Co-sponsored by NM Media Literacy Project and New Mexico Voices for Children, the event is a mock “Oscars” ceremony, designed to expose the tobacco industry’s influence in Hollywood, and to point out how popular actors and movies encourage young people to start smoking. 

Recent research has found that smoking in the movies is the most powerful pro-tobacco influence on kids today, accounting for 52% of adolescents who start smoking, an effect even stronger than cigarette advertising.

The Fame & Shame Awards ceremony is part of NMMLP’s Smoke Free Movies project, which delivers multimedia presentations, training, and free copies of the Something Stinks in Hollywood! DVD-ROM to youth statewide.

More than 350 New Mexico middle school and high school students entered the 2009 Talk Back to Big Tobacco! Script & Storyboard Contest, submitting over 275 original scripts and storyboards for 30-second radio and television commercials aimed at preventing tobacco use by children and teens.

A panel of media and tobacco prevention experts will select eight contest winners -- four TV storyboards and four radio scripts. Winners will receive $500 cash and a chance to win $2500 if their ad is chosen for statewide radio or TV broadcast.

The contest judges will give extra weight to scripts aimed at youth from low-income households and rural communities, Native American youth, lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender youth, and youth with disabilities. These young people are disproportionately affected by tobacco use in New Mexico.

The winning scripts and storyboards will be produced into radio and TV spots by youth producers and will be distributed on DVD to schools and tobacco prevention programs statewide.

Visit the contest website at www.talkback.nmmlp.org for more information.

FiercePride is a statewide coalition of community-based organizations and individuals working to help address tobacco issues within the LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex) population within the state of New Mexico. It includes community member volunteers, health professionals, media literacy experts, and tobacco education professionals.

FiercePride’s activities include raising awareness in the statewide LGBTQI community about high tobacco use rates, educating individuals and organizations about how the LGBTQI population is target marketed by tobacco companies, creating LGBTQI-specific educational materials, counter-marketing campaigns, and quit programs, and increasing the sensitivity of people who work with TUPAC and on the Quit Line to help the LGBTQI people who use their services.

NM Media Literacy Project continues to produce timely and relevant educational resources.  In 2009, A Movement, Not a Market and Media Literacy for Prevention Mini Unit were released.  For 2010, two new resources are currently in development:  a  Spanish-language media literacy for tobacco prevention DVD-ROM, as well as a resource about diabetes and tobacco prevention.  These media literacy resources will include TV commercials, magazine ads, and a discussion guide. 

A Movement, Not a Market: A Tobacco and Alcohol Prevention Resource for the LGBTQI Community

This free DVD-ROM is a multimedia educational resource on media literacy, the portrayal of the LGBTQI community in media, and the targeting of the LGBTQI community with tobacco and alcohol products.

This resource can help improve our ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce media messages.   With 52 media examples (from TV shows, films, magazines, and counter-marketing campaigns), learners can become active participants in our media culture.

Media Literacy for Prevention Mini Unit

This DVD-ROM teaches media literacy skills by examining tobacco, alcohol, and food marketing. It includes 33 media examples -- movie clips, TV commercials, magazine ads, graphs, as well as a printable presentation guide you can use to lead a conversation about the media examples on the disc. This resource is available for purchase at the NMMLP online store.

NM Media Literacy Project may be visiting your area soon! Please contact us if you would like a presentation in your community. Our upcoming plans include:

January:
23, Las Cruces, NM: Training for middle and elementary school teachers
24-29, Taos, NM: NMMLP 5-Day Training at Taos Middle School
25, Albuquerque, NM: FiercePride Committee Meeting

February:
3, Albuquerque, NM: LGTBQI Regional Training for TUPAC Contractors