When is Kick Butts Day?
The third Wednesday of March is Kick Butts Day.
What is Kick Butts Day?
Every addiction limits us, even a dependence on the internet or caffeine. Addiction to cigarettes takes limitation to a new level though, so Kick Butts Day organizes kids across the country to promote a tobacco-free lifestyle, especially among children.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids started Kick Butts Day in 1996 to combat the tobacco industry’s seductive marketing. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. and worldwide. Peer pressure contributes to the growing number of smokers under 18, but tobacco marketing has a stronger effect.
Taking up smoking is a lifelong decision for many smokers. Most kids don’t have the reasoning capacity or self-control to choose well when faced with such a big question. Kick Butts Day advocates for their lives by spreading the word about tobacco addiction and its costs.
Facts about Kick Butts Day!
- Every day, another 2,000 American kids try smoking for the first time, and more than 300 become daily smokers.
- As of November 2018, over 1 million U.S. high school students smoked regularly.
- Almost 500,000 Americans die every year from tobacco use, whether their own or through secondhand smoke.
- Research has shown kids to be three times more sensitive to tobacco marketing than to peer pressure, and the tobacco industry spends $9 billion a year on ads.
- Tobacco kills more people every year than the combined total of car accidents, alcohol, AIDS, murders, illegal drugs, and suicides.
How to celebrate Kick Butts Day:
- Do some research. Learn the facts about tobacco use among kids, the health effects of secondhand smoke, and the workings of the tobacco industry.
- Support public policies that reduce the use of tobacco and people’s exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke. For example, well-funded stop-smoking programs and tough regulation of tobacco marketing both deter tobacco use.
What’s the hashtag for Kick Butts Day?
Promote the regulation of tobacco marketing by using #KickButtsDay on social media.