Street Marketing
Y
STREET
In 2004, Y St. (Street) was launched in Virginia to recruit teen
volunteers for ydouthink, the VTSF’s tobacco-use prevention
campaign, which is focused on 10- to 17-year-olds in Virginia.
Through street marketing, Y St. has overcome the challenges of
declining participation between trainings, which is a problem
faced by many other youth-based anti-tobacco-use programs.
Y St. focuses on an integrated social marketing approach by not only
training youth, but also creating a system for sustained youth
involvement. In Y St.'s first 18 months, teens volunteered 1,667
times throughout Virginia, resulting in more than 25,000 youth-to-youth
interactions. After the most recent rounds of Y St. Trainings,
there are now more than 1,700 youth statewide who champion the
ydouthink tobacco-use prevention movement, delivering its message
to middle school youth across Virginia.
GLAM
ROCK INITIATIVE
One of the major initiatives launched by Y St. is the GlamRock
Campaign. Although the 1999 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA)
established that tobacco companies could not advertise to people
under the age of 18, there are no specific rules covering magazine
advertisements. Y St. believes that magazines with large youth
readerships should take a stand and not accept tobacco ads because
doing so exposes millions of youth to glamorized tobacco use.
The purpose of the Glamrock Campaign is to educate the general
public about this concern, and to get two magazines with a large
teen readership to stop advertising tobacco products to youth.
To learn more, or to send a message to the magazines yourself
go to www.glamrockva.com.
VIRGINIA YOUTH CULTURE INITIATIVE
The Virginia Youth Culture Initiative is a radical new approach to prevent risk behaviors in Virginia’s urban youth populations. Violence and tobacco-use are behaviors that put local youth at risk of physical injury, long-term health consequences, and even jail time. These behaviors can create addictions or legal consequences that can effect youth for the rest of their lives. The Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation is dedicated to healthy, tobacco-free urban youth, while understanding that violence prevention is a critical issue to our community. The Virginia Youth Culture Initiative focuses on the overall health of urban youth, by targeting the cultural influences that motivate these behaviors.
The Virginia Youth Culture Initiative is a comprehensive cultural
intervention. The approach puts local hip hop culture in the hands
of community leaders, allowing youth to express their culture
while also leading healthy lifestyles. One of the most powerful
concepts of Social Branding® is that it allows youth to maintain
their culture, while marginalizing, then eliminating the specific
behaviors that put them at risk. In Virginia the strategy has
been piloted and youth have responded positively. All three events
conducted in support of this campaign, entitled “2Up2Down,” sold
out. Once the evaluation plan is fully developed and the leadership
council complete, the campaign will launch full-scale in the Seven
Cities area, followed shortly thereafter in the Richmond area.
