One Signature at a Time

As a member of Smokeless Social Media, I am learning how important it is to build a strong network of supporters that will help further our cause.  We have been fortunate to have the support of a dedicated Advocacy class as well as other classmates in our Public Health program at GWU.  However, about a month after creating the SSM advocacy group, we decided to take our cause to the streets of DC.

On October 1st, Social Network was released and we thought what better time to elicit support for our cause.  So, four of us headed down to the Regal Cinemas in Chinatown armed with petitions and flyers and dedication.  Good thing we brought the dedication along!  From about 6:15pm until 7:30pm, we handed out flyers to any willing hand and stalked people (young, old, smoking, foreign, security guards, everyone!) to sign our petition.  We wanted to get our message out: social media should not be used as a tool for tobacco advertising.

In the end, we handed out a couple hundred flyers and racked up almost 60 signatures for our petition.  Not bad for about an hour worth of work.  And in the end, we learned a lot about how to work the mean streets of DC.

The Upside:
- Most people, even current smokers, do not want kids exposed to tobacco advertising or the negative effects of tobacco use.

- It's super easy to get people to sign your petition if they are waiting to cross the street and can't really go anywhere.  Use opportunities like this (or when people are waiting in line for fast food, looking for friends in the crowd...anyone standing still, really) to get people to listen.

- If you get one person in a group to take a flyer, listen to your pitch, or sign the petition, chances are their friends will too.

The Learning Moments:
- People will stare, say rude things, ignore you, make inappropriate comments, and even try to pick you up. But once in awhile someone will take a flyer or sign your petition.

- It's really hard to come up with a very brief few words (that are also truthful) to catch people's attention.  "Help us end tobacco advertising on Facebook" or "Don't expose kids to tobacco online" or any of the other things we shouted were just a tiny snip-it of what we are trying to do.  But if the snip-it gets attention, it's doing what we want.

- Even when you really care about an issue, it is not always easy to get others to care.  But, we've all got to start somewhere!

P.S. Please sign our petition!  Smokeless Social Media Petition