'Gutsy students from Medway have been snatching shoppers’ cigarettes, in an effort to persuade them to kick the habit.Kent Online reporter Ruth Banks seems to think 'steaming' down a road stealing cigarettes from the hands of smokers in 'gutsy'; I have another word for this activity - 'mugging'. I don't smoke but I might feel the urge to start if I was in Medway next month.
The sixth formers from The Hundred of Hoo Comprehensive School are taking direct action against smokers on high streets around the area, to produce material for a short anti-smoking film.
They hope their finished movie will help persuade other young people to stub out their fags.
Film director Margherita Gramegna - the artist in residence at the school - set the students the task of devising a film about smoking.
She said: “Some of the students were smokers themselves and said that they didn’t think the current anti-smoking adverts actually worked.
“They thought that Chatham, in particular, needed a stronger impact - something on the street - something that could resonate better than an advert you see polished up on the telly.
“The final idea was to go out and literally ambush smokers and take their cigarettes off them. The adverts don’t work, so we are going to make you stop smoking.”
In the first of their shoots on Chatham High Street, the teenagers swarmed around smokers en masse, yelling “Ciggy Busters” at them.
But Ms Gramegna says the reaction was surprisingly positive.
“I was scared about doing something so crazy on the street - I mean you can get arrested.
“But we researched it properly and planned it in a way that we covered all the possibilities.
“We didn’t start directly with the general public because we were scared of their reaction, so we planted some people to demonstrate with first.
“After that, people actually participated quite nicely and let us ambush them.
“They were actually saying that this was a very funny and interesting approach.”
The “Ciggy Busters” will be continuing their project on high streets around Medway in September.'
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Gutsy?
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2 comments:
Yes, I read about this. I live near Chatham High Street but missed this occurrence.
I dunno: I don't really like the idea of it, however much I despise the fumes and the sheer attitude of imposition on the rest of us by the tobacco druggies. At least it turned the tables for once; but not in a way I'd personally encourage.
A better idea is what I term a "combustion inhibitor field" that would simply put the things out and make them impossible to light. If such a field were devised one day, it would protect the rest of us in communal areas.
As an ex smoker, I am really tempted to get one of those electronic fag thingamajigs and 'smoke' it everywhere, just to say 'Up yours you self-righteous bastards'
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