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THREE YOUNG ARTISTS
LOGO (lo'go): A graphic symbol of a company name, trademark, or idea.
Your mission: Create a logo appealing to teens which communicates the message that smoking isn't healthy.
How would you start? Stare at a blank sheet of paper for hours until you go nuts? Just ask Jenny Wang, Larry Pan, and Mia Park, students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, who got this assignment as a class project. They gave us the inside scoop on how they "kicked butt" and accomplished their mission.
Jenny: We wanted whatever it was to be playful and humorous.
Larry: Teens like cartoons, so we came up with the idea of a cartoon style, but not naive, more cool.
Mia: It had to look good on posters, key chains, T-shirts, book covers, backpacks.
Larry: I thought about a poster in a school hallway, and what would make this one stand out from all the other stuff on the walls. Mia used to smoke...
Mia: Yes, but only in high school, and not much!
Larry: We talked about why teens start smoking, like the desire to look cool, and how to fight that.
Jenny: Melissa Mills (Program Manager of KICK BUTTS) from the American Lung Association came to class and said she wanted fun characters. That got us started.
Insider Info: To get the three designs they liked, Jenny, Larry and Mia drew over a 120 characters.
AND THE WINNERS ARE...
# 1 "Buttheads"
Jenny: The way they're standing, it's like they're talking directly to you.
Larry: They look like two cool guys just hanging out, then you notice their heads.
Mia: We chose strong colors to help grab attention. And yellow means "alert." The red looks nice with the yellow.
Jenny: Red also means "danger."
2nd Runner Up "Lung Man"
Jenny: We wanted a lung character, because you never think about how smoking affects your lungs
3rd Runner Up "Smoke Man"
Jenny: We didn't really like this one, but it was the class favorite.
Larry: This one is much more overt. It really shows what smoking does to you.
What's next for our three hotshot designers?
Jenny: Graduate soon and get a job! Larry: I like to travel, so I'm going to look for a job in New York or San Francisco. Mia: Make money and be happy!
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THE TOBACCO COMPANIES WANT YOU
The tobacco companies want you to start smoking. Think that's a joke? Think again. Big money tobacco companies spend 13 million dollars every day on advertising, mostly to teens. They create ads that appeal to young people and sponsor music and sporting events to associate their cigarettes with good times, health and fitness. By offering teen friendly T-shirts, jackets, and key chains, cigarette companies hope you decide to smoke. Remember Joe Camel? That character helped turn more teenagers into smokers than ever before! Camel cigarettes enjoyed over $475 million dollars in additional sales just to smokers under eighteen!
Even though Joe Camel is now banned in the U.S., Camel Cigarettes still uses the character to attract teen smokers in Asia and Latin America.
In a national survey,teen- age smokers said their favorite brands of cigarettes were Marlboro, Camel, and Newport, the three brands that spent the most advertising dollars, and are the three most advertised brands.
Coincidence? Not on your life. 3,000 teens start smoking every day. Half will die from lung cancer.
What can I do?
Join KICK BUTTS and become an advocate.
ADVOCATE (ad-ve-ket): A person who speaks or writes in support of a cause.
Organize a smoke-free sporting event, write letters to Congress, talk to younger kids about smoking, or refuse to wear clothing that endorses tobacco products.
Start or join a local KICK BUTTS chapter. You'll meet OTHER students from across Los Angeles County, have fun, and kick tobacco's butt!
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L.A. Students Do the Model Thing
Ever see Cindy Crawford and think, "I could do that?" Six Los Angeles teens got that chance when they posed for a brand new KICK BUTTS billboard, coming soon to neighborhoods all over Los Angeles.
Efiong Smith, Oscar Hernandez, Alejandra Aguinaga, Herbert Barraza, Itzel Perez, and Karen Valera beat out over 40 Los Angeles High, Hollywood High, and Santa Monica College students in the KICK BUTTS model search.
The six students went to a professional photographer's studio for a day-long photo shoot, where they were pampered just like real models with a make-up artist and all the pizza they could eat. Then came the shoot. "It's hard getting in front of the camera," says Oscar Hernandez of Los Angeles High School. "I liked that I could be myself. I wasn't trying to be a model," says Herbert Barraza, also of L.A. High.
That's the whole point, according to photographer Ed Fox, who shoots movie posters. "I wanted a natural, real look. Body language was important," he says.
Vince Aamodt, the award-winning designer of the original American Lung Association of Los Angeles County Vulture Billboard, is creating a revised Vulture Billboard using our KICK BUTTS models. "He'll choose the kids he likes the best, position them, and then add shadows and smoke for the cigarettes, using a computer," says Ed Fox.
Now, the students are anxiously waiting to hear who will be chosen. "I'm crossing my fingers, my nose, my eyes," says Oscar. Look for the finished billboard this summer.
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EarthFest '98
KICK BUTTS kicked back at EarthFest '98, held April 19th at the Santa Monica Pier. Ed Begley, Jr., actor and environmentalist, joined KICK BUTTS and the Team O2 Mobile Tobacco Education Program to distribute information on how tobacco smoke damages healthy lungs.
Over 30,000 people strolled among the booths and enjoyed the stage shows and a concert, making this event the largest environmental gathering in Southern California in over twenty years. Everyone had a great time playing KICK BUTTS games and entering the raffle, as well as looking at the displays on cancer-causing chemicals in cigarettes.
Congratulations to the organizers and sponsors of "EarthFest '98 - Celebration of the Planet" for the opportunity to come out and support a cleaner, healthier, and tobacco-free environment.
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DO THE MATH
Say you smoke one pack a day at $2.40 a pack. Here's what you could do with all that money, instead of sending it up in smoke.
One week: $16.80 Treat yourself and a friend to the movies.
One Month: $72.80 Buy a pair of rollerblades and kneepads and have money left over for lunch.
Four Months: $291.20 Have an awesome pizza party with 24 pizzas.
One Year: $873.60 Buy a Sony Playstation and 18 new games.
5 Years: $4,368 One year of college tuition at UCLA.
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Butt Facts
- Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of all lung cancer deaths. Second-hand smoke causes DEATH.
- Tobacco kills more Americans each year than AIDS, cocaine, crack, heroine, alcohol, homicide, suicide, car accidents, and fires COMBINED.
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Reality Check
Have you seen the Benson & Hedges cigarette ads? They show cigarettes relaxing in front of a fire or by a swimming pool. But think about it. Have you ever met anyone with lung cancer who was relaxed?
Tobacco companies must think teenagers are stupid, because their ads try to make smoking look cool and sexy, when what smoking really does is wrinkle your skin, yellow your teeth, and make you sick. Eric Shoengarth, a graphic design student at Antelope Valley Junior College, decided to draw this "rebuttal" to Benson & Hedges. We think it shows the truth about smoking.
Do you want to send a message to the tobacco industry like Eric? Send us your cartoons and story ideas. We will select one cartoon entry for the next issue. Here's the address:
KICK BUTTS
Youth Advocacy Program
American Lung Association of Los Angeles County
5858 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA
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