News Releases

Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross and Education, Citizenship and Youth Minister Peter Bjornson today announced the winning ad chosen by students through the successful Review and Rate teen smoking prevention program.

 

Students voted for the ad they thought would prevent them from starting to smoke or encouraging them to quit if they already smoke.  For the third year in a row, students selected a graphic ad. This year’s winning ad, Older than Dead, shows the effects smoking has on the body.

 

“The Review and Rate program allows us to go directly to youth for their input into our provincial tobacco control strategy by asking them to choose the anti-smoking ad they think works best,” said Irvin-Ross. “And thanks to initiatives such as Review and Rate and other components of our successful tobacco control strategy, youth smoking rates in Manitoba have been declining since 1999.”

 

Students in participating schools viewed 12 different anti-smoking ads. Teachers received extra resources to encourage classroom discussions about tobacco use and related issues.  Ballots were received from more than 29,600 young Manitobans aged 11 to 17 and more than 360 schools participated in the 2006 program.

 

“Teachers told us they found Review and Rate III to be an excellent teaching tool for tobacco use prevention and that they would participate in the program again next year,” said Bjornson.  “As National Non-Smoking Week begins, I want to thank all the students, teachers and schools who participated in this year’s Review and Rate program.”

 

Twenty student names will be drawn from the returned ballots and these students will receive an Apple iPod Shuffle as an incentive for participating in the program.  Letters will be sent to the winners by the end of January.

 

The winning commercial selected through the Review and Rate program will air in March, exposing Manitobans of all ages to the effective anti-smoking ad.