Celebs launch anti-smoking film competition

A SHORT-FILM competition encouraging young people to promote anti-smoking amongst their peers was launched by TV celebrities at Salford Quays today.

The Cut Films competition, which is open to youngsters across the North West, is a short-film and social media project that educates young people about smoking in a creative way. 

T4 presenter Will Best and Hollyoaks actress Jessica Forrest came to MediaCityUK this morning, to officially launch the competition, which offers prizes, workshops and national publicity to the winning applicants.

Will, who features in the promotional video on the competition site, said: “It’s about young people, doing the research, finding out for themselves, making their own decision, and then telling other young people what they’ve found, rather than grown-ups just saying to young people that smoking is bad.”

Applicants under the age of 24 are asked to research tobacco marketing or smoking in the media, and make a two minute short film about their findings.

The entries will be uploaded to the competition website, and shared via social media sites in order to attract votes for each film.

Jessica, 21, is the face of the competition and a passionate anti-smoker. She said: “I thinks it’s really important to keep telling kids how harmful and damaging smoking is. I think it is quite ignorant when people smoke in a room in front of you when you don’t smoke. It can affect the non-smokers which is a really big thing.”

The Cut Films project was formed by the Deborah Hutton Campaign, a peer-to-peer smoking prevention charity named after the former health editor of Vogue, following her death to lung cancer in 2004.

The competition is funded by Tobacco Free Futures through its Smoke & Mirrors project, which aims to actively involve young people in making decisions about their futures.

Andrea Crossfield, Director of Tobacco Free Futures, said: “We want young people to be involved by talking to their peers about smoking, understanding the risks associated with smoking, and understanding tobacco industry tactics and marketing to recruit young people into smoking.”

A ban on tobacco products being displayed in large shops came into effect earlier this month, and last week the government launched a three week consultation on the standardised packaging of tobacco products.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced plans that could see all tobacco products stripped of branding and sold only in plain packages with health warnings on.