WHAT IS REALITY CHECK?

Reality Check is a group of teens ages 13-18 from all over New York State. These youth are coming together to expose the truth and lies of the tobacco industry and how their marketing purposely targets youth with the intent to get them hooked on their products. We aim to reveal how the big tobacco companies intrude in nearly every aspect of teen’s lives from movies to sports. The tobacco companies try to associate their products with anything and everything.

REALITY CHECK CAN OFFER YOU:

 

Ø      T-shirts and other great gear

Ø      Free activities and fun events (movie nights, Great Escape, sport events)

Ø      The chance to socialize and make new friends

Ø      The ability to use your creativity

Ø      Rebellion against  the Big Tobacco companies

Ø      The chance to be a leader

Ø      Success

HISTORY:

Reality Check is a New York organization created by teens throughout the state to expose the tricks, lies, and manipulation of the tobacco industry.  We began in June of 2000, when 150 teens from various counties in NY State came together at a statewide summit.  At this summit we learned of the deep dark secrets of the tobacco industry. After hearing all of these disturbing things, we decided to take a stance and that’s when Reality Check was created with the goal of informing other NY teens about the manipulative ways of the tobacco industry and how they want to convince us smoking is normal, cool, and even rebellious.

In September, a group of us got together to further develop the program.  We even went as far as to create a statewide youth board. This board consists of two teens from each county, who are elected by the other Reality Check group members from their county.


In both January and April of 2001, we got together again, but this time to be trained as facilitators and staff so we could get the word out to more teens like us. After the completion of this training, we held another summit, which took place in July of 2001 at Keuka College in Western New York. Over 350 teens showed up for this event!  Some MTV Real World and Road Rules cast members were there to help show their support. They too were educated about the shameless manipulation of the tobacco industry and were told of what Reality Check is doing to stop them.

By July of 2002, our message had spread so much that over 10,000 teens had either attended an event, joined Reality Check, or owned a piece of our gear. Pretty impressive huh?
 

WHAT ARE THE KEY MESSAGES?

  • Reality Check is for teens, ages 13-18, male or female, smoker or non- smoker.

  • Reality Check is a teen led movement against the manipulation of the big tobacco industries and their marketing practices to target youth.

  • Reality Check is not anti-smoker; rather it is anti-tobacco industry.

  • Reality Check empowers youth to tell their peers that they are simply considered “replacement smokers” to the tobacco companies who will be losing many of their customers to tobacco related illnesses.

 

SOME GREAT LINKS TO CHECK OUT:

www.realitycheck.ny.com

www.thetruth.com

www.tobaccofreekids.org

http://www.tobaccofreeadirondacks.org/

 

 

 

 

 346 Main Street, Suite 2, Hudson Falls, NY 12839  (518) 746-1527 or 1-800-498-7044