What is Reality Check?
Reality Check is a youth-led movement against big tobacco companies and their manipulative marketing that appeals to the younger generations.
Our Goals
We aim to expose the manipulative and deceptive marketing tactics of the tobacco industry by producing a change in our communities through grassroots mobilization, and education. Empowering youth across NYS will help them see that they are more than just replacement smokers for the tobacco industry. They can become leaders in their communities
Youth Benefits:
- Positive Youth Development
- Community Organizing
- Leadership skills: public speaking & community service
- Media development
- Travel across NYS for regional and statewide Reality Check events.
- Create a network of peers across NYS
- Speak to local and state elected effected officials

Our Approach
Leadership
Engage youth as leaders and activists in the movement against tobacco use and the tobacco industry.
Deceptive marketing
Educate community members and leaders about the manipulative and deceptive marketing tactics of tobacco companies, and mobilize them to take action.
Community actions
Engage community leaders and decision-makers in support of community actions against tobacco and the tobacco industry.
Societal support
Utilize the youth voice to demand societal support to hold the tobacco industry accountable for its actions and to change the social norms that support those actions.
Media
Develop media relationships and work to garner earned media.
Nationally & internationally
Contribute to the advancement and growth of a youth action movement against the tobacco industry locally, statewide, nationally and internationally.
Smoke-free Movies

Teens consume more media than ever, watching an average of almost 11 hours of media in any given day. The media youth consume is often completely unregulated, giving the tobacco industry direct access to teens’ daily lives.
As teens spend more and more time on the web, Big Tobacco spends more and more cash on internet marketing. There are currently no state or federal laws regulating how the tobacco industry markets on the web. This gives the industry free range to target youth in new covert ways through buzz/viral marketing.
With anonymous posting as easy as the click of a mouse, the tobacco industry can easily claim innocence while recruiting new replacement smokers for the 1200 Americans they lose daily to tobacco related illnesses.
Reality Check aims to expose the tobacco industry and de-normalize and de-glamorize tobacco use on screen.
Interested in becoming part of Reality Check?
Help us create a tobacco-free generation!
Download our Reality Check Brochure here or contact Abigail Clark, Reality Check Coordinator at (585) 484-1503 or Leah.Gryzboski@lung.org. You can also visit the Reality Check of New York website at www.realitycheckofny.com to see what action is being taken statewide!
It has been a known statistic that the black community has been disproportionately affected by smoking and Big Tobacco. This is something that American Lung Assocation and TACFL tries to bring awareness to. It is a perfect time bring awareness to the issue as we are at the beginning of Black History Month.Here are a couple of staggering facts about smoking and the Black community.
-Despite historically starting later and smoking fewer cigarettes per day than white Americans, Black Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with and more likely to die from tobacco-related cancer.
-Black men are more likely to develop and more likely to die from lung cancer than their white counterparts.
For #BlackHistoryMonth, we ask that you join us in urging President Biden to finish the rules to end menthol cigarette and flavored cigar sales in the U.S. at a.lung.org/ZgMuHgD. ... See MoreSee Less
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Timeline photosAre you struggling to stay quit? Make time every #QuitMonday to check in on your progress and use our Weekly Check-in Tool to find resources to help you stay motivated no matter what stage of quitting smoking you're in. Try the free tool at: ow.ly/TUfk50MwcCi ... See MoreSee Less
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The American Lung Assocation continues to implement and provide some fantastic tobacco cessation programs. Not on Tobacco (NOT) and Freedom From Smoking are two examples, alongside the newly launched ACT youth focused cessation training. Check out the post below from American Lung Association or our most previous post for more great information on those programs.Go Tobacco-Free in ‘23! We offer resources to help adults and teens to quit all tobacco products.
Freedom From Smoking: Helps individuals create their own quit plan while as providing tips and techniques to stay successful in the long run. on.lung.org/2XpL71A
Not-On-Tobacco® (N-O-T) is a teen smoking/chewing/vaping cessation program for teens who want to quit. on.lung.org/39vJked ... See MoreSee Less
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