What’s campaigning?

Campaigning means getting people with power to make the decisions you want. A campaigner is someone who feels strongly about changing a policy or practice and takes action to change things, or to put pressure on people to make better decisions. There are lots of different ways you can campaign. For example:

• Write letters and send emails to the people who make the decisions
• Talk to your MP
• Have a protest
• Start up or sign a petition
• Hold events to raise awareness and gain support for your cause

 

The SmokeFree ‘Scary Movies’ campaign which aims to remove smoking from youth rated films is a result of D-MYST’S Toxic Movies campaign which was launched in 2007.

Toxic Movies was launched by D-MYST as they felt that they were being targeted by the tobacco industry through their favourite films. This campaign raised the issue that smoking in films is the main reason young people start to smoke and action began.

The campaign received huge support across the city with people signing letters addressed to the UK film regulators BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) asking them to give all future films containing smoking an ‘18’ rating. D-MYST met with the BBFC in February 2009 to discuss the issue of smoking in youth rated films. They didn’t believe there was as much support for the issue as D-MYST claimed and suggested that we target the film companies instead of them.

Click here for reviews on the latest films releases including their smoking content.

 

D-MYST is supporting SmokeFree Liverpool in their campaign, SmokeFree Kids; which aims to protect children and young people from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Children and young people are not fully protected by the current smokefree legislation which prohibits smoking in enclosed workplaces, but they do deserve the same protection.
For more information go to www.smokefreeliverpool.com

 

The tobacco industry spends billions of pounds worldwide advertising and promoting tobacco products, in particular encouraging young people to try and encourage them to take up smoking though product placement in shop fronts, at point of sale, on TV, in music videos and in movies. Don’t be a target; refuse to take up the costly and deadly habit, campaign to reduce marketing and advertising aimed at young people and support and promote smokefree environments.

 

 

Past Campaigns

The D-MYST Takeover

D-MYST and Juice FM launched the D-MYST Takeover Tour in late 2009.  The tour visited secondary schools across Liverpool to hold radio ad workshops with year 7’s.  The workshops designed for the pupils to come up with the official new D-MYST radio ad.

The Juice FM Evening Show’s presenter Steve Timmins and some of the stations producers held the workshops where pupils were taught how to script a radio ad before they had to come up with their own idea for a new D-MYST ad.

At each school the scripted ads were recorded by the pupils in the Juice FM outside broadcast studio and the finished products delivered to the D-MYST members for the winning ad to be chosen.

Listen to the 10 shortlisted ads here:

Gateacre 1	Gateacre 2
New Heys	Parklands
Shorefields	St benedicts
St Hildas 1	St Hildas 2
West Derby 1	West Derby 2

And the winning ad came from… New Hey School.

To listen to it click here NEW HEYS SCHOOL WINNING AD

This winning ad, the official new D-MYST ad was aired on Juice FM for four weeks to promote D-MYST and our messages.

Click here to see pics from the winning pupils visit to the Juice FM radio station where they helped out Baz Todd on his Afternoon Show.

 

DoH Consultation

Over the summer D-MYST prepared their response to a Department of Health consultation about the future of tobacco control for young people.

D-MYST felt that the national response did not go far enough to protect children and young people and so wrote their own response.

The response called for:

• A plan which protects children and future generations from the harm that tobacco causes.
• Measures to restrict young people’s access to tobacco products.
• Measures to protect children and young people from tobacco advertising, promotion and to remove tobacco imagery from their sight, especially in youth rated movies.
• Over 10,000 D-MYST branded postcards carrying these messages were signed by people in the city, which were then sent to the Department of Health.

 

D-MYST schools tour

D-MYST with Juice FM visited secondary schools across Liverpool with a new play about smoking and young people called ‘The Truth Factory’.
The play exposed the truth about the tobacco industry and how young people have been and still are targeted with smoking messages by the tobacco companies.

‘The Truth Factory’ was hosted by the Juice FM crew. 

 

 

 

SmokeFree Stadia

In 2006, D-MYST launched their SmokeFree Stadia campaign with the aim of making Everton and Liverpool FC’s stadiums 100% smokefree.

The smokefree legislation proposed at the time did not include sports stadiums as they were classed as not enclosed spaces.  However D-MYST and many other young people disagreed with this stating that when they went to a match if someone around them smoked it not only was bad for their health but ruined their enjoyment of the game.

DMYST dedicated their summer holidays to the smokefree stadia campaign by attending events across the city and asking people to signing up and support smokefree stadiums.

More than 8000 people signed the petition in support which D-MYST presented at Anfield stadium.

As a result of the campaign not only were D-MYST mentioned in the DoH consultation response but when the smokefree legislation came into place on the 1st of July 2007 all stadiums were declared smokefree.