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 abigail.clark@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!
With the new school year right around the corner, it is important to recognize vape prevention measures to take within schools. Talking about the issue of vaping is a crucial step when it comes to education and prevention.
#dothevapetalk ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook
Today our Community Engagement Coordinator and Reality Check Coordinator are at the Sodus Farmers Market to help promote TACFL’s initiatives to the community. Spreading the word on the harms of second hand smoke and how we can help the Finger Lakes become a healthier community for all! The Sodus Market is doing their part and signed a tobacco free policy with us a years ago to help reduce second hand smoke at their weekly market! ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook
When it comes to electronic vape devices, and tobacco products in general, there are still many myths that continue to circulate. Vape devices entered the market in 2007 and started to become very popular in 2014 within the United States. At that time vapes were thought to be "healthier" than traditional combustible cigarettes. Over the last decade more of these myths have been debunked, and it is so important that they continue to be debunked, and to shed some light on the true facts revolving vape devices.
#tobaccofree
#tobaccofreeny
#facts ... See MoreSee Less
Comment on Facebook