Leaves Are Falling, truth® Is Rolling…
Contact: Patricia McLaughlin: Legacy (202) 454-5560; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Leaves Are Falling, truth® Is Rolling…
National Tour Continues Through October with AST Dew tour, Tony Hawk & Street Marketing Events
Washington, DC; September 7, 2010 – truth, the nation’s largest smoking prevention campaign for youth, is continuing its 11th annual nationwide summer tour with stops through the fall. For the months of September and October, a seven-member truth crew will travel to 11 states, stopping at musical and sporting events where teens gather and meeting teens one-on-one through guerrilla marketing events.
This year’s edition of the tour began June 25 at tour stops in California and New York with two separate crews. The crews eventually made more than 60 stops across more than 25 states.
The fall edition of the tour will hit some new markets where the campaign has not previously traveled, including Knoxville, Tenn.; Athens, Ga.; Oklahoma City; and St. Augustine, Fla.
By traveling throughout the United States, truth continues its life-saving mission to educate young people about the health effects, addictiveness and social consequences of tobacco use – while also allowing teens to experience the truth campaign first-hand. The effort is led by seven dynamic truth “crew members” – talented and charismatic young adults who engage in peer-to-peer interaction with teens. At most stops during the fall tour, the crew will use its signature orange “truth truck” and zone, which form a natural gathering place for teenagers. In the zone, crew members hold fashion shows, dance contests and freestyle rap “battles,” play games and distribute truth “gear” – fashionable and trendy items reflecting tobacco messages. The fun and engaging atmosphere makes it easier for truth crew members to discuss tobacco issues in a non-preachy way.
Events featured on the fall tour will include:
· AST Dew Tour – an action sports tour, featuring the top action sports athletes in the world competing for the highly coveted Dew Cup in skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross.
· America Haunts – three Halloween-themed events, two in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and one in Chicago. This marks the first time truth has worked with America Haunts, a collective of the most successful and renowned haunted houses and attractions in the country.
· Honda Civic Tour – an annual concert tour sponsored by the Honda Motor Company. This year’s headlining band is Paramore, a rock band known for its contributions to the Twilight soundtrack.
· Tony Hawk Presents Birdhouse World Tour – an action sports tour featuring top skateboarders.
· truth will also make impromptu appearances at teen-oriented events and venues such as festivals, skate parks, community centers and more in cities like San Francisco, St. Petersburg, Fla. and Los Angeles, among others.
“After a summer where our crew members traveled the country, educated thousands of teens and tweeted and blogged about their experiences the whole way, we are pleased we will be able to bring more of these great connective experiences to more of the nation’s teens,” said Cheryl G. Healton, Dr. P.H., president and CEO of Legacy, the national public health foundation that directs and funds the truth campaign. “As truth celebrates its ten-year anniversary in 2010, the tour has been a significant part of our success over the decade. This is the second year that we have been able to extend the tour into the fall months, and we welcome the chance to hit more cities, work with more event partners and reach thousands more teens with important information about tobacco use and the tobacco industry.”
The fall tour will be enhanced online at www.thetruth.com, where users can learn about truth, meet the truth crew members who will be out on tour, view video blogs and photos from the field, play games, find out where upcoming events will take place, and view updates from tour stops.
In addition, tour-specific programming will run on select networks and channels popular with teens. FUEL TV, the cable network devoted to the lifestyle and culture of action sports, will feature interviews with crew members and video from the truth tour on its news program “The Daily Habit.” Two different segments will run on FUEL, starting in late October.
The fall tour truth crew members and their hometowns include:
|
Crew Member: |
Hometown |
|
Anna Satayana |
Fairfax, Va. |
|
Daniella Sloane |
Philadelphia |
|
Tennie Brown |
San Diego |
|
Ashley Chen |
New York |
|
Anthony McLean |
Washington, D.C. |
|
Thomas Sands |
Gardner, Mass. |
|
Zach Scott |
Springfield, Va. |
|
|
|
truth is a multidimensional campaign, featuring not only grassroots outreach through summer tours but also advertising (television, radio, print, online, cinema), Websites and interactive elements, and events. In the past decade, the truth campaign has kept nearly half a million teens from smoking, protecting them from years of addiction and tobacco-related disease and saving countless lives. A growing body of research has confirmed the efficacy of the truth campaign in changing teens' attitudes and behaviors toward smoking. A study published in the April 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) found that truth was directly responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke during its first four years, from 2000 to 2004. A second paper in that same publication found that the campaign not only paid for itself in its first two years, but also saved between $1.9 and $5.4 billion in medical care costs to society.
For the fall 2010 program, Arnold Worldwide/Boston is responsible for the design of the truth zone and design of truth gear. GTM…It means a lot (Atlanta), manages truth crew recruiting and operations, and Mobile Media Enterprises of Atlanta provides all transportation and asset support.
For more information on the AST Dew Tour, visit http://www.allisports.com/tours/dew-tour.
For more information on the Honda Civic Tour, visit http://civictour.honda.com/.
For more information on the Tony Hawk Presents Birdhouse World Tour,visit http://www.birdhouseskateboards.com/index.php.
BACKGROUND ON THE truth CAMPAIGN
truth, launched in February 2000, is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction, and the health effects and social consequences of smoking. truth allows teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products.
Legacy is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. Legacy was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit www.legacyforhealth.org.
Legacy is equipped with a VideoLink ReadyCam™ television studio system, providing you with faster, easier access to the nation’s leading tobacco prevention and cessation experts. From this in-house broadcast studio, Legacy can offer immediate access to its experts to comment on breaking news, new research publications, or any news related to youth smoking prevention, adult quit smoking programs, or any issue related to smoking. The studio is connected directly to the Vyvx fiber network and is always available for live or pre-taped interviews. To arrange an interview using the ReadyCam, please contact Julia Cartwright at 202-454-5596.
A Frightening Strategy: Amber Arnett-Bequeaith of Full Moon Productions
October 2009
- KC Small Business magazine
A Frightening Strategy: Amber Arnett-Bequeaith of Full Moon Productions
Scaring customers is business as usual for these hauntrepreneurs.
By Kate Leibsle
Amber Arnett-Bequeaith knows her look confounds those with a preconceived notion of what someone in her business should look like. Up late interviewing zombies and ghouls for her four haunted houses the night before, Amber breezes into the Full Moon Production offices in a summer dress, coffee and notebook in hand, looking businesslike, and, well, normal.
“People think I should be Goth,” she said. “We’re not like that. We’re a true theatrical production.”
And the magnitude of their seasonal theatrical production is astounding. More than 200 “on-stage” and behind the scenes employees will frighten the bejeezus out of more than 100,000 people this year—in just 29 days—at the company’s four haunted houses in Kansas City.
Terror and horror have returned for the 35th season of Kansas City’s only world-class haunted house attractions. “The Beast” and “The Edge of Hell” haunted houses open this Labor Day weekend for those who dare to darken the doors of these haunts in the historic West Bottoms district. Haunted house goers should not be afraid, as emergency repairs are expected to be complete on the nearby 12th Street bridge over I-35 in time for opening day.
The Travel Channel program America Haunts spent the day and night filming at Kansas City's infamous haunted houses, The Beast and Edge of Hell on September 19th, 2009. The show to aired in October, 2009!
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