Make the Choice: Tobacco or Health


			Introduction

			Getting Started

			Effective Antitobacco Presentations

			Slides/Notes

			Patient Testimonial

			Surgeon General Report 2001

			Surgeon General Report 2006

			Closing The Loop

			Resources

Effective Antitobacco Presentations

Get Ready To Make a Difference

Talking to Specific Audiences

Materials for Download

Get Ready To Make a Difference

You're probably beginning to think about your presentation. Here are start-to-finish pointers for setting up, organizing, preparing, and delivering effective presentations.

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Scheduling Presentations

You may already have speaking opportunities in your professional and residential communities. Or you may need to seek out a time and place for presenting a program. Use your imagination and ingenuity to develop a list of possible program settings.

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Professional and Community Organizations

If you have already made presentations to local groups or organizations in the past, you can notify them by letter or in person about this program. Providing them with a list of suggested topics may help to pique their interest. If you are not experienced at giving this type of presentation, you may need to search for opportunities. Consider contacting:

The Director of Medical Education or Director of Nursing Education in your hospital. Hospitals are especially interested in providing staff members with programs that will enhance their abilities and understanding with, of course, minimal cost to the institution.
Deans at health professional schools.
Local women's organizations, both professional and social, such as League of Women Voters, the local chapter of the National Association of Business and Professional Women, the American Association of University Women, Parent-Teacher Associations at local schools, and the National Organization for Women. The business or society/lifestyle editors of your local newspaper can often be very helpful in locating these organizations.
Local elementary, middle, and high schools and community, public, and private colleges.
Local public television and radio stations and newspapers.
Organizations such as the YWCA, YMCA, Girls, Inc, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Junior Achievement, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Camp Fire Girls.
Local, state, and federal policymakers and government officials.

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Facilities Questions to Ask

As you make arrangements, you will want to inspect the program site or ask detailed questions.

Make sure the size of the room is appropriate for the expected audience.
Be certain that there is sufficient seating with good visibility.
Check the placement of electrical outlets if you are using projection equipment.
Make sure the meeting facility has the equipment you need, such as a computer projector, overhead or LCD projector, screen, VCR, monitor, easel, flip charts, and fresh marking pens. If necessary, order them from a rental supply company and determine who will pay for the rental.
Find out if there will be someone to help you operate any electrical equipment.
See if refreshments are typically served. If so, ask the group to handle those arrangements. Make sure the serving area will be far enough away from the presentation area so that people getting refreshments will not interfere with the presentation or with those already seated.
See if the facility will duplicate any handouts for you and have them ready for you on presentation day. The facility may be willing to underwrite the cost of meeting materials and refreshments. In addition, local drug manufacturer sales reps usually have a small fund from which to draw for events such as these. Manufacturers of lung cancer chemotherapy agents and supportive care products will be the most likely to be willing to provide funding.

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Publicizing Your Presentation

Ensuring you have an adequate and appropriate audience for any presentation requires publicity and confirmation.

Enlist the help of the people in charge of events at your program facility to publicize your event through their newsletters, mailings, and calendars.

At a hospital, you generally must request permission to use the various information distribution mechanisms. Opportunities for publicizing your program abound at hospitals and include:

Announcements at grand rounds
Monthly calendars
Newsletters
Bulletin boards
Mail boxes
E-mail
Patient libraries and waiting rooms

Additional publicity opportunities include local media, such as newspapers, radio, and public television stations.

If you can, ask participants to RSVP so that you can begin to know their names and adjust your presentation to their numbers and needs.

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Determining the Needs of Your Audience

Assessing the needs of your audience is very important and will help to ensure the success of your presentation. You will have a more marketable program based on specific, valid needs, and participants will benefit from participating in a program based on personal interests and abilities.

Whether your audience is made up of adults or children, try to get information about demographics, organizational goals, previous efforts in health/tobacco control, etc. Start by talking to people in charge. Then, if you can, call some of the people expected to be in the audience. The more knowledge you have, the better.

If there is sufficient lead time, you might develop a short needs assessment to be distributed to those who regularly attend sessions of the group or organization sponsoring your presentation. Ask your contact to distribute the assessment at a session prior to your scheduled talk and to return the assessments to you for your planning.

Examples of information you could use for professional audiences include:
What their concerns are in counseling smokers about smoking and smoking cessation.
The number of patients/people with tobacco-related disease with whom they work.
The number of opportunities they have to provide patient/family/caregiver education.
The number of opportunities they have to present to groups about tobacco use and smoking cessation.
Their desire to attend a presentation about tobacco use, such as the impact of tobacco on the health of girls, young women, and women; and prevention and/or smoking cessation.
How they feel about treating and/or working with people who continue to smoke and who know the risks.

If you have access to patient satisfaction survey data at your own hospital or office, review these surveys to see if they indicate a need for staff to enhance their communication skills with patients with tobacco-related disease. Present this information to individuals in the institution who have the authority to approve peer education presentations.

For an audience of girls or teens, you might ask:

How many of them have family members who smoke or use tobacco?
How many know other girls or teens their age who smoke or chew tobacco?
Why they think kids use tobacco?
What do they think is bad about tobacco use? What's good?
Do any of them have family or older friends who are sick or who have died from tobacco-related diseases?

If you are pressed for time and are comfortable speaking off the cuff, at the beginning of a presentation, ask the audience what they need to know and offer topics from which they can choose. Do have a backup strategy or strategies if the audience has difficulty getting started.

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Planning Your Presentation

Determining the content of your program will depend on the type of audience, the number of people expected to attend, the setting, and your objectives. Start by asking yourself the goal of the presentation and why you are giving it, instead of what you are going to present.

Basically, you have three major tasks:

Stimulate enough interest among members of your target audience so they will attend.
Determine which program messages are the most appropriate for the audience.
Conduct the program in a manner that will elicit the most positive responses and action from the audience.

Attempting to sell an idea and change behavior may be a very different kind of presentation from the ones you are used to giving. Here are some tips from veteran speakers:

Determine your basic objectives before planning the presentation.
Analyze the values, needs, and constraints of the audience.
Determine your optimum presentation method, depending on the audience (ie, formal or informal; standing or sitting; podium, lectern, or joining the group).
Write down some main ideas first, in order to build a presentation around them.
Incorporate both a preview and a review of the main ideas when organizing the presentation.
Develop an introduction that will catch the attention of the audience and still provide the necessary background information.
Get the audience involved in your presentations through questions and answers or activities.
Select your slides and other visual aids carefully to enhance the presentation.
Ensure the benefits suggested to the audience are clear and compelling.
Construct the presentation so that you can communicate with enthusiasm.
Use notes containing key words only.
Prepare answers to anticipated questions.
Incorporate your personal experiences into the program to bring a human touch to your presentation.
Develop a conclusion that refers back to the introduction and, if appropriate, contains a call-to-action statement.
Use humor whenever possible. Laughter breaks down many barriers. When interspersed with very emotionally moving human stories, humor can help significantly to ensure your message is heard and remembered.

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Organizing Your Program

Because the organization of your presentation is crucial to its success, the following steps may be helpful when you begin the organization process:

Determine Main Objectives - Write down any ideas that come to you; don't stop to edit anything. The object is to get down as many ideas as possible. When you are finished, begin eliminating some and narrow the rest down to a manageable number for the time allotted for your presentation. You may want to select two or three main ideas/topics you wish to cover.
Develop the Introduction - Based on your knowledge of the audience and their potential responses, use one of the standard introduction methods. Begin with one of the suggested interactive approaches, an anecdote, humor, an involving question, rhetorical question, shocking statement, or a quotation. Younger children will probably not respond well to a shocking statement or quotation. An involving question may be very appropriate for health professionals if your goal is to encourage them to take a more proactive stance with their patients.
Construct Your Talk - Some people prefer to develop the narrative portion of the program first and then review the slides and any other visual aids that will most effectively state their case. Others prefer to review slides and other visual aids after determining the needs of the group and developing the content last. Use whatever method you prefer.
Consider How To Engage Your Audience - Interactive group discussions can help audience members—including health professionals—apply the information to their own situations. Attendees' personal experiences can be incredibly valuable for others in handling their own situations. Regardless of your topic and your audience, merely presenting a series of slides will prove ineffective, and you will lose your audience's attention early, particularly with younger children. Include as much audience interaction in your presentations as possible. Health professionals, especially, will appreciate a change from the typical didactic lectures they traditionally hear. Many of the Kit's slides are designed to spark discussion and can be interspersed throughout your lecture. An organization or school may wish to purchase brochures to hand out during your presentation and/or invest in one or more of the visual aids. A model of a diseased black lung, for example, can have a big impact on an audience, particularly a young audience. Some companies are willing to loan out some of the smaller props or posters.
Develop the Conclusion - Quickly reinforce what was presented, and end with something that refers back to your introduction or asks for positive action.
Questions and Answers - Always allow at least 10 minutes for final questions and comments. In most informal presentations, this can be done throughout the presentation. Questions and answers are especially important with young people.
Further Information - Consider leaving a one- to two-page handout, reference, or fact sheet for your audience to keep with your name and contact information. Handouts are always appreciated by participants. If appropriate, you can attach your business card.
Feedback - You may want to use one of the evaluation forms in the Kit to get feedback about your presentation and see how your messages were received. Many speakers like to use a pretest and posttest. Create your own or look in the sections for different audiences for a model.

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Make the Technology Work for You

This speaker's kit gives you two ways to prepare and show visual aids. Remember that each new slide takes about a minute to cover. So gauge the number of slides you will need for an hour-long program with at least 10 minutes of questions and answers and 5 minutes of introduction.

PowerPoint Presentation – Design your own slide show in PowerPoint that you run on a laptop computer and project onto a screen. You even may scan in your own material to incorporate. Use PowerPoint for a very professional presentation style. This is how information is presented in the business world, and you will underscore your position as an authority with this "slick" efficient program. A word of caution: you will have to have your notes on separate cards or papers, as the notes will not appear on your screen when you are projecting the slides. Read the instructions that came with your PowerPoint software for tips. Visit www.microsoft.com for online support and to get your questions answered.
Overhead Transparencies - You may create overheads by printing the slide images from the Kit onto transparencies. Your local copy store can help you. This is a much more informal presentation style. You can write on your transparencies with markers. You are forced to move around more than you are with a PowerPoint or slide presentation. So if you are trying to get closer to your audiences, you should consider using overheads. Most schools, churches, and civic groups have access to an overhead projector.

Need help?

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Practice, Practice, Practice

Whatever method of presentation you choose, make sure you practice enough to feel relaxed in your delivery. Speak out loud so that you get used to hearing your voice talking about this topic in an engaging way. Experiment with raising the energy and enthusiasm in your voice.

Make sure you know how to use your equipment easily. If you're using overheads, figure out how you like to flip them so it becomes second nature. Practice clicking your computer mouse at the speed you like. See just how close to the screen you want to be or whether you want to stay near your slide projector.

Practice enough that you have a minimum focus on your notes and the ability to give maximum attention to your audience.

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Running the Program

Ideally, you should plan to arrive at the program site at least 1 hour before the presentation is scheduled to begin. Check in with your host to see if there are any last-minute changes.

Make a final check on your equipment, seating, visibility, lighting, and necessary replacement items, such as an extra bulb for the projector. Confirm that everything works: projector, remote control, electronic pointer, VCR/monitor, and light switches. If you do not have a remote control for your computer projector, enlist the host or someone else to control the lights and to advance the slides for you.

Set out your props, if you have them. Arrange your materials and your speaking area so that you will be comfortable and relaxed.

As people enter the room, greet them in a friendly manner, and encourage them to be seated as quickly as possible so the program can begin on time. Make certain you adhere to the start and break schedule—and keep within your allotted timeframe. If you're in danger of running over, don't drop your Q&A time. Just keep it short and invite people to talk with you individually afterwards.

You also can offer your business card to anyone who has a question that does not get answered. Making business cards available to all attendees is a good idea, in case they think of a question after the program.

If you include discussion groups in your program, walk from group to group to help them get off the ground, maintain interest in the topic, and correct misinformation and dispel myths that may come up during the discussions.

Keep the following in mind:

Maintain good eye contact with the audience at all times.
Use a strong and clear voice that is not a monotone.
Use humor when you can to establish rapport with your audience.
Let the importance of your task energize your delivery and drive your messages home.

If you have handouts, let the audience know at the beginning of the program. Distribution of these handouts, however, may best be done at the end of the program. Distributing materials at the beginning of your presentation may tempt attendees to leaf through them, distracting themselves and the rest of the audience. However, in some instances you may want to provide handouts at the beginning of the program so attendees can make notes or use them as discussion guidelines. Just make sure that the handouts help you get your points across, not act as an impediment to your presentation.

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After the Presentation

It's a good idea to write thank-you letters to the groups, organizations, or schools where you have made presentations. Try to get notes off within 1 or 2 days of completion of the program.

Encourage comments, and let the individual/s in charge know that you are willing to present the program again. You may want to suggest that a series of programs might be helpful or appropriate, depending on the target audience and the reception to the original presentation, scope of comments on the program evaluation, and results of any evaluations or posttesting.

Your posttest results may provide a graphic example of the need for your type of presentation when you approach potential new sites for conducting your presentation.

Consider follow-up activities to sustain the learning experience you initiated.

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Types of Programs

The materials in this Kit can help you build a variety of programs, ranging from 20-minute lectures to all-day (or longer) workshops.

We’ve grouped slides by topics that you can use as is or to create a custom program. For instance, you may wish to focus just on the history of tobacco advertising to women, on certain aspects of the impact on girls and/or women, or on smoking cessation.

Browse through the topical slides to find a slide set or combination of slides that is right for your audience.

History of Tobacco Advertising Slide Presentation – The historical slide selections provide a tremendous variety of educational options for all audiences. The slides can be divided into a number of different topic-specific sections.

The most obvious, of course, is blatant manipulation of female consumers by the tobacco companies through advertising. The underlying subtext of many of the ads can make for lively discussion. For example, the Virginia Slims campaign of "You've Come a Long Way Baby" often shows women from the past, but there are no African-American women in these ads. Ask the audience why. There are also double standards in cigarette advertising. For example, a woman will never be portrayed with a cigarette in her mouth.

Health Issues Slide Presentation – These slides provide a graphic portrayal of the devastation tobacco products have on women's health. Besides frank talk about lung and other cancers, you'll find information about tobacco and strokes, tobacco and heart disease, tobacco and pregnancy, and information on the increased use of cigars and smokeless tobacco.

Smoking Cessation Presentation – These slides contain such information as smoking cessation products, the barriers to quitting and the physical process of nicotine addiction. These slides can be used for a variety of audiences from health-care professionals to civic groups to children. You can select which slides will work best for your particular audience.

Combination Slide Presentation – It may be effective to combine the vibrant graphics of the historical slides with the information provided on the health issues slides. You may choose to focus on women and lung cancer.

For a health-care audience or a group of adult women, you could select a series of the slides on smoking trends in women, some of the slides on lung cancer statistics in women, a few fiction/fact slides, and some issues of concern during smoking cessation. These could be interspersed with tobacco ad slides to show the influence of advertising on the rise in smoking prevalence and lung cancer in women.

For a presentation to a Girl Scout troop working on badges, you might select some of the ad slides, several of the smoking trend slides, slides on body image from the Just for Girls section, and end up with a positive image slide.

Call on your creativity and imagination to develop your programs so that they will draw the audience in and create a desire within them to participate actively throughout your talk.

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Talking to Specific Audiences

Health-care Professionals/Students

Tips/Questions/Activities

Many health professionals have not seen Women and Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General—2001 or the most current report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General - 2006. The Surgeon General 2001 Report is the most comprehensive collection of research and statistics on women and smoking available. Check out the slides that summarize key facts and trends. Go to the Surgeon General Web site to download the 2006 report.

You have a real opportunity here to reach an audience with an effect on an enormous group of people: patients who smoke. Amazingly enough, most health-care professionals have not been trained in advising patients about how to quit smoking.

You goal is not just to help professionals treat patients more effectively but also to inspire them to spread the word themselves. Medical students, for instance, can be excellent advocates against tobacco, especially with younger audiences.

Try a pretest/posttest, and see the impact you can have. For additional ideas, see the section on speaking to women and adults who work with children.

Download pretest/posttest

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Women

Tips/Questions/Activities

You may be asked to make a formal presentation at a city or county medical, pharmacist, or nursing association, a medical society, or to women in the community. An interactive approach will also work well in these situations, stimulating audience interest in the topic and spurring retention of the material.

A possible introductory interactive program for adults is to provide straws to all participants and ask them to breathe through the straws while they hold their nose. While people are breathing through their straws, begin your presentation by informing them that while not all people who smoke get lung cancer, everyone who smokes does have lung damage, such as emphysema. Breathing with emphysema is similar to the exercise in which they are participating.

After this demonstration, you can segue into health-related information on tobacco use and its impact.

You also might ask some questions of your audience to encourage participation. How many here use tobacco? For how long? How many people have loved ones who use tobacco? Have any family members become ill from tobacco-related diseases? What would motivate someone to stop using tobacco? What are the toughest parts of quitting? How can people in the room support people who want to quit?

Remember that you are likely to have both smokers and nonsmokers in the group; you will want to maintain an atmosphere of support and understanding for the difficulty of quitting.

If you want to keep your presentation at a more general, rather than personal, level, you can ask a series of true/false questions found in the pretest/posttest that are designed to expose myths about smoking.

In addition, you might want to bring some people who have quit to talk about their experiences in the first-person. Any information you have about local resources for quitting smoking would be helpful.

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Younger Audiences

Tips/Questions/Activities

Scare tactics do not work with young people. As a part of growing up and becoming independent individuals, a great many adolescents participate in risk-taking behaviors.

Some young people see tobacco use as a form of risk taking or social posturing within their group of friends or school. Often, children, especially middle school and older, do not respond well to an authority figure trying to convince them of something they should or should not be doing. This approach, regardless of intent, usually falls on deaf ears and may even cause the opposite effect of that intended.

Girls start using tobacco for many reasons, and most will experience some of the same pressures to smoke as boys. Peer and family role modeling, the desire to look adult and stylish, stress relief, and, above all, peer influence play a part. Girls may experience other pressures related to their personal appearance. For example, girls often smoke cigarettes in social situations in which they are looking for ways to appear "cool," confident, and comfortable.

Young girls are bombarded on a daily basis with imagery that promotes thinness as the ultimate ideal for women. Gratifyingly, such organizations as the Women's National Basketball Association and groups like the women's Olympic soccer gold medalists provide young girls with some alternative role models to chain-smoking waifs.

Determining the needs of an audience composded of young people can be very difficult. It may require spontaneous creativity on your part. For example, if you talk only to the group's leader or teacher prior to your presentation, she/he may underestimate the knowledge base of the attendees. A program that is developed with just the basics will be quickly dismissed as boring.

You will want to make a point of talking to representative members of the class or group before you begin your talk so you can ask some informal questions to determine their knowledge level, attitudes, and interests. Then adapt, be flexible, and speak to their needs when you deliver your presentation.

Children and teens may respond better if you appear casual and approachable. This may be achieved by moving around the classroom or auditorium, sitting on a desk, or just using very open and friendly body language. Perhaps the occasion calls for wearing jeans and a T-shirt (only if you feel comfortable in this attire and you feel it's appropriate).

Your contact at the hospital, organization, or school at which you will be making your presentation can be helpful in providing you with information on the "look and feel" that she/he feels will best reach your audience. Use this information as the foundation on which to begin building your presentation.

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Interactive Programs for Children and Teens

All audiences respond well when they are drawn into a presentation and can make a personal connection to what is being presented. Interactive activities can sometimes be the best mechanism to making that connection. Whenever possible, provide some incentive for participating such as pizza or other popular food, or giveaways, such as wristbands or other items currently in vogue with your audience.

Suggestion #1 (Children ages 10-14):

The following is an interactive scenario used successfully by a health professional who conducts frequent tobacco awareness programs with children and teens. This is one possible activity to start a presentation with a group of young people.

For this scenario, you will need a can of a toxic material, such as brake fluid, that has the skull and crossbones or some other warning label. Place this in a plain brown paper bag and fold the top down.

Give your introduction and outline your credentials, placing emphasis on how credible you are as a health-care professional.
Ask one or two members of the audience to come to the front of the room.
Hand her/them the brown paper bag containing the can of brake fluid.
Explain that the substance in this can make them sexy, feel a part of the group, look grown-up, stay thin, etc (these are all things that tobacco ads imply). Then ask them to drink it.
The response will probably be no (of course, if anyone agrees, spin off the talk into why they would agree).
Ask them why they won't.
Participants will respond that they won't drink it because they don't know what's in it.
Tell them that it won't hurt them, and ask them again to drink it, emphasizing again that as an adult and a health professional, you are credible.
Participants will still refuse.
Stress that you are a responsible adult and a medical professional and would not tell them to do anything harmful.
Participants usually won't believe you and will still refuse.
Next, remove the can from the bag and point out the warning on the container and make the comparison between the warning on the brake fluid and on a pack of cigarettes.

Once the demonstration is complete, you can segue into the substances that are known to be added to cigarettes and the ways that tobacco companies manipulate young people into becoming smokers. Once they become addicted to nicotine, they will continue to spend their money to support the tobacco companies. This can lead easily into a presentation on the historical ad slides and how tobacco companies manipulate women and girls, as well as men and boys.

Suggestion #2 (Children 12 and under):

Get your audience of girls up and moving with these activities before your slide presentation. This is perfect for an after-school scout or club meeting when kids are eager to move around.

Materials Needed:
Foil
Cotton balls (or cosmetic puffs)
White glue (Elmer's or other nontoxic glue)
Cornstarch baby powder
Drinking straws

Setting:

A large room with tables and chairs at one end (a school lunchroom, an auditorium, a gym, etc)

Give each seated participant a square of foil, a cotton ball, and a drinking straw. Tell them to leave them on the table until it's time to use them.

Introduce the activity: A day in the life of a nonsmoker and a smoker.

"We're going to act out what it feels like to be a nonsmoker today—and what it would feel like if you were a smoker.

"Wake up! Stretch your arms and legs and yawn yourself awake. [Have everybody do that]

"Now if you were a smoker, you'd wake up and cough. I'm going to time you while you cough for 30 seconds. It's tough, it feels bad—and it's just the way long-time smokers start their days. Now cough. [Everybody coughs and laughs]

"Now go back to your places at the table. Put your cotton ball on top of your foil. This cotton ball is your lungs. Healthy lungs shake off all the bad things in the air: dust, dirt, pollutants. We're going to say that this powder is all the pollutants. [Walk around and shake some on each cotton ball] Pick up and shake your cotton ball—it all comes off easily. That's because you're a nonsmoker.

"Now I'm going to make your lungs into smokers' lungs. Gunky, tar-sticky lungs. [Walk around and drizzle a little white glue on each cotton ball and shake the powder on it. Now try to get rid of the pollutants. You can't. The tar from smoking holds the particles in the air on your lungs and helps promote disease.

"So what does it feel like when you get lung disease from smoking? First, let's breathe deeply with our healthy lungs. [Everybody breathes deep breaths]

"Now, pick up your straw and try breathing through it for 30 seconds while holding your nose. Pretty hard, isn't it, even if you breathe slowly? Imagine trying to walk around and function in everyday life like that. That's what it feels like when you get emphysema, a disease smoking causes.

"We're going to do one more thing in the day in the life of nonsmokers and smokers.

"I want you to go across the room as fast as you can and stay there. [Everybody gets up and runs over] You did that quickly because you're a nonsmoker.

"Now you're a smoker. Walk slowly with baby steps, heel to toe, back to your seats. [Everybody comes back across the room] Took more effort and got you there more slowly, didn't it?"

Suggestion #3 (teens 12 and up)

Before showing teens the advertising slides, hold up three packs of cigarettes (Marlboro, Kool, Camel) with the brand name covered. Ask them to name the brands. When they can, tell them that's the power of advertising. And if the tobacco companies weren't promoting cigarettes directly to them, why would they all know?

Suggestion #4 (Children ages 10 to 12)

Materials:
5 empty jars with tops (plastic baby bottles would be perfect)
Tablespoon of cinnamon
Fresh orange or lemon peel
Unwrapped unchewed bubble gum
Tablespoon of minty mouthwash
2 cigarettes lighted and snuffed
An empty plastic 20-ounce or larger soda bottle

Play "Sniff the bottle." Put each different scented material into a jar or bottle and cap it. When you get to where you're doing your presentation, put the jars in a circle with the spinning bottle in the middle. Give each child a chance to spin and open up and smell the jar that the spinner indicates. After everyone has a turn, say, "Now imagine kissing all of those smells! Do you think anyone wants to kiss an ashtray?"

Suggestion #5 (teens 12 and up)

Materials:
2 easel pads and markers
Divide the group arbitrarily into smokers and nonsmokers (count off).
Ask the group, "What's good about being in each group?"
Then ask, "What's bad?"

Write each on a smokers' pad and a nonsmokers' pad.

Now tell them you're going to flash forward 10 years. The smokers now smoke 2 packs a day.

Figure out how much that would cost on the pads (figure $4.35 a pack). What could the nonsmokers buy that the smokers couldn't? Write the list down on the nonsmokers' pad.

What about their work lives? Ask what's happening then? What about when they fly on airplanes or go out to restaurants? Who has an easier time of it? Write them down in the appropriate places.

What's good about being in each group now? What's bad?

Now flash forward another 30 years.

How much money have they lost with their 2-pack-a-day habit?

What do you think each group is feeling now? What's good and bad?

Suggestion #6 (all ages)

Bring a set of healthy lungs and a set of blackened diseased lungs from the pathology department of your hospital to show them.

Suggestion #7 (all ages):

Have an older ex-smoker come to your talk and level with the kids about what it's like to smoke. An ex-smoker with an oxygen tank or an electronic voice box can make a big impression on your audience.

Suggestion #8 (13 and up):

Have the teens declare war on the tobacco companies and everyone who supports them. Work with teens to identify places in their communities where underage smokers can illegally buy cigarettes—and then report them to local officials. Have teens research where their state tobacco settlement money is going—and then write their legislators with suggestions of how to spend it.

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More "Just for Girls" Activities

"I could have a ..."

"I could have a" gets girls thinking about the financial strain of smoking as they chart cost per day, week, and month to someone who smokes five cigarettes a day, one pack a day, or two. With the money they save by not smoking, girls could purchase anything from frozen yogurt or a night at the movies to tuition for a course at the local community college.

Excerpted from Girls Incorporated Week · Stamp Out Smoking · May 11-17, 1997

"Cigarettes and Magazines"

"Cigarettes and Magazines" lets girls chart the proportion of cigarette ads in magazines to those for other products and uses real cigarette advertisements as inspiration for parody ads showing the hazards of smoking. And, by surveying magazine advertisements, girls can begin to recognize the ways advertising enhances the allure of smoking, asking themselves and one another: What is being sold in this advertisement— romance, riches, independence?

Excerpted from Girls Incorporated Week · Stamp Out Smoking · May 11-17, 1997

"Shop till You Drop"

Ask girls to list all the "free" stuff they get from smoking cigarettes. Is it really free?

"Free Stuff from Tobacco" featured in Journeyworks catalog

Poster Contests

School districts may consider having a poster contest for middle or junior high school girls. The contest theme could be "What cigarette smoking does to people" or "Why it's cool not to smoke." Prizes, such as a bicycle, dinner out for the family, airline tickets, or money, could be donated. One such contest in Chicago arranged for the top 10 winning entries to be exhibited at the Art Institute for a month.

Role-Playing Exercises

"You Can't Fool Me!" fosters girls' critical skills with role-plays between the tobacco industry and the girls they target. The prospect of weight loss, greater popularity, and increased attractiveness through smoking are dangled before girls who counter with what they know about how smoking deteriorates body and mind.

Excerpted from Girls Incorporated Week · Stamp Out Smoking · May 11-17, 1997.

"Do you mind if I smoke?" role-playing deals with being exposed to passive smoke ("Excuse me, but would you mind putting out your cigarette? The smoke is bothering me." OR "I'm allergic to smoke."). "Would you like a cigarette?" allows girls to role-play what to do when someone offers them a cigarette ("I'm allergic to smoke." OR "Cigarettes kill and I don't feel like dying."). Role-playing reinforces girls' ability to say "No" and that they can be independent and resist peer pressure to smoke.

Excerpted from Girls Incorporated Week · Stamp Out Smoking · May 11-17, 1997.

Other role plays can deal with how to convince a smoker to stop or put out his or her cigarette, how to tell a family member about being concerned about their smoking, and how to ask loved ones to stop (this can reinforce how difficult it is to stop smoking once they start).