In a world where many people have forgotten the power of their own voice our campaign squad speaks out and takes a stand against Big Tobacco. Squad members consist of young, hard-headed individuals who are passionate about educating the public and fearless in their efforts to get tobacco companies to change their harmful behaviour.
April 2012
It’s been a very busy and very exciting month for us here at Kick Butt, what with Office Easter egg hunts (mmmmm chocolate), a Tobacco company protest and the removal of supermarket tobacco displays. Having been banned from advertising their cigarettes on TV, billboards and in magazines for a number of years now, tobacco companies have recently been relying more and more on their fancy, attractive cigarette packs to lure in young teens. Now that large supermarkets legally have to hide their cigarette packs away from public view, we find ourselves one step closer to protecting the younger generation from the sly tactics of tobacco companies.
This month also saw the British American Tobacco (BAT) company host their Annual General Shareholders Meeting on 26th April near Westminster. So some of Kick Butt’s Campaign Squad members scurried down there with homemade banners and helped to make some noise. Their main message focused on requesting that cigarette packs adopt plain packaging and lose all of their eye catching branding. After the protest Kick Butt also strolled down to an event at the Houses of Parliament in order to ask a few MP’s about their own views on the plain packaging proposal.
Kick Butt are now on Blackberry, so for those of you that have a BlackBerry please add us on BBM: 22F8F7E4 and spread the word.
March 2012 – No Smoking Day
March was a very busy month for Kick Butt – what with ‘No Smoking Day’ taking place on top of all our usual school activity involving delivery of Operation Smoke Storm (our secret agent smoking prevention resource).
No Smoking Day was a massive success for us here at Kick Butt. Kick Butt’s campaign squad members spent the day driving around the borough in our company Tuk Tuk and visited: 1 secondary school, 2 sixth form colleges and 1 youth club. A total of about 500 young people were engaged with on the day.
If you’d like us to come and visit your youth club sometime soon then please Click Here.
We are now currently very busy preparing for our annual protest event which happens every April outside the British American Tobacco company headquarters. This year we will be meeting up with young people from around the UK and protesting about the outrageous behavior of the tobacco industry. Our campaign squad members will be focusing on trying to get our voices heard in an attempt to try and influence the government’s decision around whether or not to make all cigarette packaging plain and unbranded, as opposed to eye catching and appealing to young and older people alike.
If you or your school want to come down and join us at the protest on Thursday 26th April and also get the opportunity to speak to your local MP at the Houses of Parliament then simply Click Here to register your interest.
February 2012 – Fun with the tuk tuk !!
It’s been a very frosty February with temperatures reaching as low as -5 degrees in some places. Despite these sub-zero temperatures our company Tuk Tuk (3 wheeler promo vehicle) has still been hitting the streets and visiting schools and youth clubs in your area. In the Tuk Tuk you can try out our amazing Face Ageing technology and take away a photo of yourself showing what you’d look like as a 72 year old smoker. You can also have your current lung age tested and discuss relevant smoking issues with our trained smoking advisors. Why not ask you local youth club if they can book our Tuk Tuk to come along sometime soon. If you can’t wait for our tuk tuk to visit you, you can always request a Face Ageing photo online by clicking here right now!
No Smoking day is also fast approaching (14th March 2012) and we are planning to make a really big day of it this year! We will be visiting at least 3 schools and a youth club doing a mixture of Lung Age testing and Face Ageing. If you want to get involved or want us to visit a place near you then please send me an email with your interest to Mary.olufiade@kick-it.org.uk
January 2012 – Happy New Year – We hope that you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to what campaign opportunities 2012 will bring for us . Here at Kick Butt we are aiming to do bigger and better things and as a result the streets of Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F) are now definitely looking better. Thanks to Lucas Duncan (winner of our recent sticker design competition) anti litter stickers can now be found stuck above every ‘Gum & Butt’ bin in the borough. A team of Kick Butt campaigners and local council members, as well as Lucas himself, helped to scatter over 300 of these stickers around H&F, spreading messages about not dropping smoking related litter and providing details for smokers to get FREE support to quit smoking.
Please remember, we are always looking to grow our team here at Kick Butt, so it doesn’t matter where you’re from, be it ‘Hammersmith & Fulham’ or ‘The Highlands of Scotland’, we still want to hear from you!!! Click Mary.olufiade@kick-it.org.uk and have your say or join the Campaign squad using the form on the left hand side of this page.
December 2011 – Some really good news – in about 100 days (6th April 2012), tobacco displays will be removed from all supermarkets. This brings us all one more step closer to protecting young people from being targeted by clever underhand tobacco promotion. If you want to read more on this BBC news story then just click here. It’s coming to the end of a very busy but extremely fun year for Kick Butt. A huge thank you to all the Campaign Squad members that have got involved in our campaigns and helped us out over the past 12 months – it’s been much appreciated. Merry Christmas to you all and we wish you all good health – see you in the New Year 2012!!! Bring it on…
November 2011 – Hope you had an explosive fireworks night!! We are still working very hard here at Kick Butt Head Quarters, and need as many young people to come and join us. If you are interested in helping others and being rewarded for it please click on the Join the Kick Butt Campaign squad (on the left of this page). The litter competition is now over but a big thank you to everyone that entered. We really appreciated your efforts and were impressed with all your great designs- the competition details and winner can be found here.
October 2011 – Spooky Halloween is now over!! Whilst most of us were trick or treating or just stuffing our faces with treats; the big tobacco companies are spending a lot of their money and time trying to trick us all into bad health. So, our campaign squad members are hard at work visiting as many schools and youth clubs in the borough, letting you know the truth. If you want us to come to a youth club or even your school send an email to mary.olufiade@kick-it.org.uk. Also our Litter Competition is now underway. All you have to do is create an eye catching sticker design which will persuade smokers to use ‘Gum & Butt’ bins instead of dropping their cigarette butts on the ground. The design should also subtly prompt smokers to think about quitting. Take a picture of your design and send it to us at info@kick-it.org.uk. For complete competition details click here.
September 2011 – By now most of you are back at school or college and working hard to get your grades. Over here at Kick Butt HQ we’ve also been working hard, saving lives and fighting against big tobacco companies. Philip Morris International makers of Marlboro are trying to gather information on why young people start smoking and what they think of tobacco marketing. To find out more or have your own say, then Facebook search ‘Stirling University Freedom of Information Request’. For information on the tobacco industry’s use of social media to advertise, then go to www.facebook.com/behindthesmoke. The campaign squad have been spreading the word all over Facebook about Philip Morrisís outrageous behaviour! Operation Smoke Storm is still running in schools, colleges and youth clubs so if you want to be part of it drop us a line at Mary.olufiade@kick-it.org.uk.
August 2011 – Summer is nearly over, but the fun has just begun!! During the summer holidays the campaign squad members have been involved in so many awesome events and community projects. We are now ageing faces in youth clubs and other places in the borough. If you want Kick Butt to come to your youth club send an email to Mary.olufiade@kick-it.org.uk. We still want more campaign squad members to join, so if you want to help save lives and get rewarded for it, then come join us! To join, fill out the form on the left hand side of this page.
July 2011 – We are currently recruiting more young people who want to get involved in Kick Butt’s campaign Squad. Kick Butt is involved in many exciting projects, and runs loads of competitions – so if you want to help save lives and get rewarded for it, then come join us! Every Campaign Squad member receives £10 for every 5 hours they spend helping out Kick Butt. To join, fill out the form on the left hand side of this page.
June 2011 – Our young Campaign Squad members are now all fully trained on using Operation Smoke Storm and have begun helping Kick But staff to run sessions in local youth clubs. So far, Kick Butt has visited both the Masbro and Brunswick youth clubs. If you want to try out this resource at your youth club, don’t be shy and send us an email mary.olufiade@kick-it.org.uk.
May 2011 – Operation Smoke Storm is a new and exciting resource which is now ready for use by school teachers and youth club workers alike. Check it out at: http://www.lockinlearning.org.uk. Operation Smoke Storm is an online, interactive secret-agent role play, which requires students to pose as job interview candidates at a fictional tobacco company recruitment day. Their mission objective is to infiltrate the industry and report back about its products and unethical business practices.
Watch out – as this may be coming to a school near you!!! If you’ve already tried it, then email us and let us know if you’ve enjoyed it mary.olufiade@kick-it.org.uk.
February 2011 – FREE ‘Love Life’ event at Fulham Cross Youth Club, 2pm-6pm (Theme – relationships).
Kick Butt will be attending this event with its young advisors. They will be offering lung age tests and age progression software to show just how smoking can affect personal appearance and appeal.
November 2010 – Launch of Hammermsith & Fulham’s Smoke free week (13- 20 Nov 2010) at the W12 Shopping Centre (Shepherd’s bush). Between 11am-4pm you will be able to watch Capoeria demonstrations, local singers and street dance performances as well as try out lung age testing, age progression and plenty more.
November 2010 – Kick Butt’s Riverside Studios film premiere event. Anyone who enters Kick Butt’s film competition will be invited to a screening of the winning films followed by a free viewing of the feature movie ‘Despicable me’ (click here for more details).
September 2010 – Acted in Kick Butt’s latest educational films: Big tobacco – taking you for a fool! & Health hazards – listen up! Click here to go to Truth & Lies
August 2010 – Ran ‘Lung age testing’ at Hammersmith and Fulham’s ‘Love Life’ events, educating local residents on the health hazards linked to smoking.
July 2010 – Staged a protest outside British American Tobacco HQ, which focused on the use of social networking to promote cigarettes.
April 2010 – Staged a ‘Child labour’ protest, outside the British American Tobacco AGM, led by young people from all over the UK. Click here to watch our youTube video
You too can join Kick Butt’s campaign squad by adding your email address here.
You can turn up and join Kick Butt at local events OR simply chose to receive news updates.
Just fill out the form on the left of the campaign squad page.
