The Tobacco Education Awareness Management Committee (TEAM) recently announced the semi-finalists in the 10th annual KICK SOME BUTTS anti-tobacco commercial contest. Final judging of the anti-tobacco commercials was held on March 23 in the Fisher-Titus Learning Center at Norwalk High School. The evening’s emcee was Kami Moon of WLKR Radio. This year, the date was chosen to coincide with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Kick Butts Day, a national day of activism that empowers youth to speak up and take action against tobacco use.
Winners included:
First place received a plaque and $1000 and was awarded to:
Monroeville High School - “Tar and Hair Dye and Cancer OH MY!”
Team Members:
Bailey Bollenbacher
Deanna Cox
Hallie Swanson
Hannah Koch
Advisor: Connie Hanke
Second place received a plaque and $800 and was awarded to:
Crestview High School - “The History Forgotten”
Team Members:
Samantha Bradley
Chelsie Howman
Advisor: Judith Roman
Third place received a plaque and $500 and was awarded to:
Monroeville High School - “Ingredients of Death”
Team Member:
Desiree Boyer
Advisor: Connie Hanke
The Larry Hanneman Award was presented to:
Norwalk High School - “Don’t Become Another Statistic”
Team member:
Brandon Helman
Advisor: Christina MacFarland
This year’s finalists and their videos were:
Ashland High School - “Awesome Power Pals”
Ashland High School - “The Smoking Legacy”
Bowsher High School - “Don’t Be A Statistic”
Upper Sandusky High School - “The Flashback”
Clyde High School - “The Smoke”
EHOVE Career Center - “Thank You Big Tobacco”
Each of the finalists received a plaque and $200.
This contest has grown annually as students enthusiastically embrace the opportunity to showcase their creativity and communicate their message on tobacco use. Students may address a variety of topics including secondhand smoke, dangers of cigarettes or cigar smoking, and smokeless tobacco products in their videos.
The contest was open to area high school students in grades 9-12. To participate, students were invited to form teams of no more than five students, and create their own 30-second anti-tobacco commercial. This year, there were over 100 entries from 16 high schools throughout Northwest and Central Ohio. From these entries, 9 semi-finalists were chosen. The committee also selected a winner of the “Larry Hanneman Award”. This award is given to an entry that did not place in the top 10 but that the committee felt deserved recognition. The award was formerly named the Committee Choice and renamed to recognize Mr. Hanneman’s instrumental contributions in making the Kick Some Butts anti-tobacco commercial contest the resounding success that it is today.
Every year more than 36,800 Ohio children under 18 will become new daily smokers. One third of them will eventually die prematurely from smoking related diseases. This contest offers an educational experience in the power of advertising, a creativity experience in communication, allows a student to exercise good citizenship skills in being proactive, encourages teamwork and offers substantial monetary prizes of $1000.00, $800.00, $500.00, and $200.00. Perhaps most significantly, by participating in this contest, many students may be encouraged to avoid becoming part of the sad Ohio smoking statistics.
Sponsors of the contest include:
The Bellevue Hospital
Fisher-Titus Medical Center
Memorial Hospital of Fremont
Samaritan Regional Health System
Samaritan Hospital Foundation
Firelands Federal Credit Union