How do you persuade young people to stop smoking? If, as the latest statistics tell us, 9 per cent of Britain’s 11 to 15-year-olds are regular smokers - a figure that rises to almost 25 per cent if just 15-year-olds are counted -nbsp; what should the health authorities do? One answer, of course, is to run anti-smoking media campaigns, a strategy that has met with limited success.
Cigarette use is highest among those aged 20 to 24, and most smokers start in their teens. So could it make sense to run a campaign that is not only aimed at teenagers but also devised by them? As health minister Lord Hunt puts it: “We’re far beyond the old health education philosophy of adults telling everyone else what they can and cannot do. If we’re really going to get information through to young people, one of the best ways of doing that is to use young people themselves communicating with their peers.”
That is the thinking behind Smokescreen, a pilot project financed by the Department of Health to the tune of some pound;250,000. With this money, the “creative agency” Brainchild has commissioned five groups of young people, mostly in London, to each make a short film “about the culture of cigarettes and smoking”. The five films, put together with the help of professional film directors who work in advertising, can now be seen on the cablesatellite channel Trouble, in cinemas and on the internet.
The channel has set aside two five-minute slots every weekday evening for the films -nbsp; between showings of American-made audience-pullers such as Baywatch and Saved by the Bell .
Trouble TV does not command huge audiences. Its best viewing figure in an average week can be around 150,000, although it claims more than 1.5 million 10 to 24-year-olds tune in at some point.
