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Realty Check youth from Perry School
worked with local business owner, Steve Smyder, from the
Perry Market Place to remove the exterior tobacco advertising
at his store. The Reality Check coordinator and youth requested
a meeting with the owner of the store to discuss the store's
tobacco advertising. Tobacco advertising in the retail environment
is a problem because kids are more than twice as likely
as adults to recall and be influenced by tobacco advertising
and youth frequently go to convenience stores that also
advertise and sell tobacco. 75% of teenagers shop in a convenience
s store at least once per week. The youth at Perry School
were also concerned about the issue because students that
are walking or being bussed to school were being exposed
to exterior advertising twice a day on their way to and
from school. The Reality Check youth said that over 200
Perry students saw those ads twice a day and because of
the youth's concern over the ads and Mr. Smyder's care for
the community Perry residents and youth are now exposed
to less of the tobacco industry influence that they previously
were.
The Reality Check youth from Perry contacted
Mr. Smyder to set up a meeting and prepared a presentation
to share with him the problems with tobacco advertising
and what he could do to help with the issues. After sharing
their facts and presentation with him Mr. Smyder agreed
that he didn't want to be exposing youth to tobacco advertising
and agreed to remove all of the tobacco ads that hung outside
his store! Later that week the ads were down! Be sure to
stop by the Perry Market Place to thank them for taking
down their exterior tobacco advertising and caring about
the community!
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