BUENA PARK - After Faith Dela Cruz's anti-smoking poster got voted the best of 100 entries in a county-sponsored contest, Dela Cruz won two free movie tickets as a prize.
Her poster criticized Hollywood for shooting movies and television programs with characters who smoke, and has become part of an anti-smoking campaign sponsored by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Dela Cruz, a student at Buena Park High School, says it's hard to watch a movie without seeing someone smoke. Case in point: She used her free tickets to watch the recently-released flick "Iron Man," in which the main character, played by Robert Downey Jr., puffs in several scenes.
"No one can really avoid smoking scenes in a movie. You see a lot of smoking. That's not good," Dela Cruz said, especially in movies that are rated PG-13, like "Iron Man."
As part of an anti-smoking program in schools, students are invited to create their own no-smoking messages, which are voted upon by people working for the county. The top six are now appearing in bus shelters around the county, especially near the schools attended by the students who created them. Delacruz's artwork was voted the best out of 100 submitted.
Dela Cruz hopes smokers—and parents and the media—think twice when they see her ad.
"My message is that there's so much product placement of tobacco in the media…. Kids don't know what they're doing. They look up to the people in the movie … that's something they want to be doing," Dela Cruz said. And, that's something she hopes Hollywood will change, or at least relegate to R-rated features.
Health Care Agency spokeswoman Barbara Brashear said the county's campaign focused on Hollywood because "Youth are big consumers of media."
The Walt Disney Co. announced last year characters in its films would be smokeless, the first major studio to do so. Disney subsidiaries Miramax and Touchstone will follow the edict as well.
Information about smoking cessation programs for teens and adults is available at 1-866-639-5864. For more information about Tobacco Use Prevention Program, call 714-541-1444.
