Please forward this url to students, staff and campus orgs who may be interested.
An acclaimed lecture program to rally students around the tobaccofree cause
TOBACCO WARS!
The Battle for a Smokefree Society
A speaker who motivates,
inspires, entertains and educates
“In my 40+ years in this field, this man was one of the most immediately engaging, personable, accommodating and constructively “mission-passionate” professionals that I have ever encountered… Our administration made the decision for our campus to become Tobacco-Free as of August 1, 2014, and momentum gathered for a ‘kick-off’ presentation. Tobacco Wars was a perfect fit!… The man is a dynamo. His energy, stage presence, clarity of message and desire to connect with the audience is phenomenal. His delivery is clear, POWERFUL and his visual aids effective in bringing points to life for the audience….”
See her two page report.
Barb Coleman, MS, Associate Professor
School of Health and Human Performance
Northern Michigan University
Patrick Reynolds is a grandson of the tobacco company founder, R.J. Reynolds, but the family’s brands, Camel and Winston, killed his father and eldest brother. He has become one of the nation’s best-known US tobaccofree advocates, campaigning for ballot measures and State Assembly bills to ban smoking in the workplace, to increase State spending on teen smoking prevention programs, for FDA regulation of tobacco and more. His bio is at tobaccofree.org/bio/.
He’s also an acclaimed speaker at colleges, hospitals and corporations who are often transitioning to a stronger tobaccofree campus policy. In his talk he discusses e-cigarettes, which are now being added to many campus tobacco bans.
Hospital Marketing Directors often co-sponsor his talks in part because press coverage of his appearances is strong and positive. That builds goodwill for them, and is an excellent outreach to community members. To locate and enroll local sponsors, see the links below.
Barb Coleman of Northern Michigan University’s School of Health and Human Performance booked Patrick Reynolds to speak on campus in April, 2014, to help prepare students for an approaching tobacco-free campus policy. See her full two page report, excerpted at the top of this page.
A front page story in a Texas paper noted, “In a little over an hour, Reynolds went from being just another anti-tobacco speaker to something special.” View the most recent news coverage of his advocacy and lectures.
In his lecture, Mr. Reynolds opens with his memory of watching his father die from smoking, and tells his personal story of crossing to the other side. He rallies students, corporate employees and community members to support smokefree campus policies, discussing the importance of tobacco and e-cigarette bans. He shows slides of cigarette ads targeting youth, and will compare your state to the rest of the nation in several areas: its smoking ban, its cigarette tax, its rates of youth and adult smoking, and your State’s current spending on teen smoking prevention and tobacco cessation.
“Reynolds’ impassioned talks were informative, funny, profound, motivating and poignant. A dazzling speaker, he skillfully mixed colorful stories about the RJ Reynolds family, Massachusetts and national tobacco data on a range of issues. Throughout his thought-provoking lectures, he interacted with his audiences and finally closed with an inspiring promise and vision of the coming tobaccofree society,” said Christopher Smalley, Director of Marketing at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Massachusetts. He continued,
“We received positive feedback from the community, students, teachers, and the general public. One member of the community told me, ‘Jordan Hospital performed a great service to the community by bringing Patrick Reynolds to Plymouth.’
“As a result of the lectures, Jordan Hospital received strong pre- and post-lecture media coverage in the Boston Globe, the Old Colony Memorial newspaper, an interview on Boston’s WBZ-AM radio station and local radio as well.
“Patrick Reynolds’ passion and belief in his mission of preventing children from smoking was a resounding success for the community and for Jordan Hospital,” said Mr. Smalley.
SPEAKING FEE
Mr. Reynolds’ speaking fee is $4,000 plus travel; because this covers two talks, you may cut your cost in half by partnering with another nearby college, a hospital’s Director of Marketing, or the Director of a hospital foundation. Travel from Los Angeles is in addition, usually under $1,000. Travels costs will also be cut in half when you partner with another org.
Sometimes the tobacco coordinator in local County Health Departments have tobacco prevention funding for speakers at local middle and high schools. If so, they may agree to partner with you as well.
Our talking points and who to call, brochure for hospitals and ad for college publications and medical journals may be helpful to you in enlisting hospital, health department and college cosponsors.
Hospitals often elect to have Patrick speak to community members on their hospital campus, and sometimes have him give his school assembly program at a middle or high school, with local press invited.
Resources for taking your campus tobacco-free will be provided, as will promotional resources for the lecture. The latter include high resolution photos for making a poster to promote Mr. Reynolds’ lecture on campus. These may be found at tobaccofree.org/photos/
Patrick Reynolds’ advocacy of national, State and local legislation, and his talks at universities and to youth, have made him a well known champion of a tobacco-free society. Former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop called Reynolds “one of the nation’s most influential advocates of a Tobaccofree Earth.” This is an event which will make a real difference in students’ lives, and prepare students for a new tobacco-free campus policy.
Please forward this web page to the right people on campus: the Director of Student Activities and student Lecture Chair or the Programming Board, the Dean of Student Health, the Wellness Center or other campus orgs who would have an interest in this lecture.
“Here in suburban Chicago, three hospitals joined together with the county health department to co-sponsor this excellent community outreach. Hospital marketing executives were thrilled with the positive front page news coverage. Tobacco control staff in the health department made their job easier, by handling all the details with the schools at which Mr. Reynolds spoke. His evening presentation for community members was also a great success.
“Over his five days of talks in schools, Mr. Reynolds gave youth here a motivating and informative health lesson, through his professional and dramatic story-telling, and his use of powerful overheads. His talk followed CDC-guidelines. I wholeheartedly recommend this extraordinary speaker and his program. In each of the nine schools he visited, he received near universal praise from students and staff. This was a truly outstanding program and community event.”
Jessica Gerdes, RN, MS, NCSN
School Health Consultant
DuPage County (IL) Health Department
Make one local call
Who to call, and talking points
An informative and empowering talk
for universities and colleges
Tobacco Wars!
The Battle for a Smokefree Society
Tobacco is a truly important global issue: one out of three people worldwide are currently addicted. As a result, in coming decades, smoking may kill one billion people in this century, according to the UN World Health Organization.
Tobacco Wars! The Battle for a Smokefree Society educates and inspires college students, corporate employees and community members. This speaker reaches the hearts and minds of his audiences. Patrick Reynolds opens with stories about the RJ Reynolds family, by turns colorful, humorous and moving. He speaks vividly about his memories his father’s anwd eldest brother’s deaths from smoking, and then switches gears and offers a report card on tobacco control in the your State, comparing it to the rest of the nation.
He’ll show slides offering clear evidence that tobacco advertising has targeted the young. He’ll also compare your State to the rest of the nation in four areas: current State tobacco taxes, State spending this year on youth smoking prevention, spending on cessation, and your State’s current laws limiting smoking in restaurants, bars and other workplaces. Finally, he’ll suggest what can be done to bring about change.
Mr. Reynolds will also offer his insightful perspective on the influence of the tobacco lobby on Congress, the UN World Health Organization’s Global Treaty on Tobacco Control, ratified by 170 nations as of June, 2011, the new FDA law to regulate tobacco, and the cutting of highly successful tobacco prevention programs by most States. He’ll provide the current number of States which have passed strong Statewide 100% smoking bans (29 as of October, 2011).
Patrick will recount the moving and powerful story of Sean Marsee, a young track star who died at 19 from chewing tobacco. He’ll illustrate that story with shocking before and after Power Point slides.
For comic relief, he shows some hilarious slides which make fun of Joe Camel, depicting him in a hospital bed, and present “Malboro Country” as a group of smokers huddled in an alley behind an office building, getting their nicotine fix.
He will include mention of other addictions of our society — drugs, alcohol, food, sex and entertainment. “Looking at the big picture, these addictions are a way of avoiding our pain, and changing our mood. But it’s better to face the problem at hand instead of avoiding our feelings,” he says.
At some colleges, he revives the ancient tradition of initiation during his talk. “I won’t take you out into the forest or desert and make your life painful, as they did in ancient times. But I’ll give you the core message: life is designed to be painful, and you can do it. When tough moments come, don’t avoid your pain by using tobacco, drugs, alcohol, or even abuse food, music, or work, like so many uninitiated adults do. Instead, stay with your problem, talk to others about it, and take steps to solve it. Share your problem and feelings with someone, whether your friends, the school counselor, or your parents. Welcome! You’re initiated now. Welcome to the world of adults.“
Mr. Reynolds also includes a short section near the end to empower students to keep faith in the future, and to deal more effectively with their doubts and fears about the years ahead. In an age of economic upheaval and an uncertain economy, new diseases such as AIDS, SARS and bird flu, reports on global warming, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the threat of terrorist attacks at home — all these have raised levels of worry and pessimism among students about the future.
Mr. Reynolds believes that the danger of widespread pessimism among youth is a likely contributor to increased rates of tobacco, alcohol and drug use. If we can inspire students to keep faith in the future, this should motivate them to hold on to their health.
Mr. Reynolds asks students to 1) Talk about their worries and fears to another person, 2) Affirm the positive, 3) Reevaluate: what is real wealth, anyway? Is it only about money? and 4) to “Catch my faith, my rock solid faith in that in the long term, there are wondrous years ahead of us all.” He urges students to, “Stay tobacco, drug and alcohol free, for the wondrous, amazing times ahead. Don’t smoke, don’t drink and don’t use drugs — you’ll need your health, every precious bit of it, in the incredible future that’s coming to us all.”
To preview this section, see video Clip 5 on the clips page.
Finally Mr. Reynolds offers a closing promise — an inspiring vision of the coming tobaccofree society.
After, there is a Q & A session, and if time permits, an informal reception following the talk.
Video clips from Patrick Reynolds’ live talks
ABOUT PATRICK REYNOLDS
Patrick Reynolds’ appearances in the national media and before Congress have made this grandson of tobacco company magnate R.J. Reynolds an internationally known and respected advocate for a smokefree society.
Mr. Reynolds saw his father, oldest brother, and other relatives die from cigarette induced emphysema and lung cancer. Concerned about the mounting health evidence against tobacco, in 1986 he became the first tobacco industry figure to turn his back on the cigarette business.
In the words of former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, “Patrick Reynolds is one of the nation’s most influential advocates of a Tobaccofree Earth.” His book, THE GILDED LEAF, published by Little, Brown in 1989, was a bestseller, and he founded Tobaccofree Earth in the same year.
A dynamic speaker, Mr. Reynolds entertains, educates and motivates audiences. And the media coverage of his appearance will bring the smokefree message to your entire community. Patrick Reynolds has addressed Congress, State legislatures, major corporations, associations, health conferences, universities, and high and elementary schools.
Patrick Reynolds‘ appearances in the international press include profiles by Time, Newsweek, AP, UPI, NBC’s Tom Brokaw, CBS’ Dan Rather, ABC World News, CNN Headline News, and numerous features by the world’s major dailies. He has also made memorable TV appearances on Oprah, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Larry King, ABC’s Nightline, Phil Donahue, Extra, Entertainment Tonight, and numerous other national and international television and radio shows.
Mr. Reynolds has been called powerful, inspirational and motivating. His dynamic talk makes a lasting impression, and media coverage has been consistently positive and strong.
Make one local phone call to a local hospital’s Director of Marketing, See our suggested cosponsors and talking points.
Recent news coverage of advocacy and speaking
Video clips from recent live talks
Contact: Christine Hou
(310) 577-9828
email: See contact link at left
Volunteer five minutes
Your local phone call may result in a live talk to youth or adults, and you’ll have made a difference in your community. Please take a minute and look over our suggested sponsors and talking points.