Stupid.ca, the Ontario Government's edgy, anti-tobacco youth campaign, has recently received several national and international honours for advertising and website design.

At the Canadian Marketing Awards on March 31, 2005, the stupid.ca television campaign received a silver medal, the highest honour awarded this year in the category of Public Service Campaign - Television and Radio. The campaign also received a bronze medal for its "Antlers" ad in the category of Public Service Single Ad - Television and Radio. The Marketing Awards, which are produced and managed annually by Marketing magazine, are the most coveted domestic awards in the Canadian advertising industry. The stupid.ca campaign as a whole and the "Antlers" ad won diploma awards in the International Campaign Category at the 2005 British Television Advertising Awards. In April 2005, Stupid.ca also won the Design and Technology Festival's Flash in the Can - People's Choice Award in the Educational Category and was a finalist at the One Show Interactive.

The goal of Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care was to create a cutting-edge campaign geared to helping 12 to 15-year-olds resist the temptation to start smoking. Stupid.ca is a multi-media campaign that reaches kids where they look for information and entertainment. All components of the campaign drive teens to stupid.ca, an interactive Web site, informing visitors of the dangers of smoking, entertaining them with smoking prevention games and fun art and encouraging them to become more involved in anti-smoking activities at their schools and in their communities. To date, there have already been more than 500,000 unique visits to the stupid.ca Web site.

According to a June 2003 Health Canada report, about 90,000 kids decide to try smoking every year in Ontario. The smoking rate among 15 to 24-year-olds in Ontario is 22 per cent. For 15 to 17-year-olds, females had their first cigarette at an average age of 12.9 years; while for males, it was 13.3 years.

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