Latest News

A Scary Story

by.. Richard Kenyon date.. Thu, October 30, 2008 - 3:04:56

Zombies and ghosts took a really scary Halloween message to Liverpool, as part of our Scary Movies campaign.

A 70-strong group of dancers and members of the SmokeFree youth group, D-Myst, marched through the city in scary costumes to raise awareness of smoking in youth rated movies.

There was a Halloween themed performance from local dance group, MD Productions, who appeared on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.

The event was part of the SmokeFree Movies – Scary Movies campaign which is designed to turn the spotlight on the issue – the biggest single influence on young people to start smoking.

SmokeFree Liverpool are asking UK film regulators BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) to keep smoking out of all future films which can be seen by under-18s.

Gideon Ben-Tovim, Chair of Liverpool PCT and Joint Chair of SmokeFree Liverpool Stakeholder Group, said: “This issue is a simple one, and simple action can be taken instantly by the BBFC, who already have the power to rate films which show smoking images as ‘adult only’.

“The scientific fact is that more than half the young people who take up smoking say they did so because of seeing smoking in movies. That means thousands of under-18s are put at risk because of smoking images which simply don’t need to be there.”

To see the pictures go to the Society Gallery