SALT LAKE CITY — It's tough to start a conversation with 25-year-old Nick Girard that doesn't end up focusing on smoking.
"Hey, where'd you get that drink?" he says, casually approaching a group of teenagers, throwing up his hand for a high five. From there, they start chatting about the weather, Girard's relationship status and — oh — "Did you know one out of three youth smokers in the U.S. ends up dying from a tobacco-related disease?"
As a representative of "truth," the largest smoking prevention campaign in the United States, Girard, who lives in Massachusetts, and a handful of other 20-somethings are touring the country for the sole purpose of talking about tobacco. Saturday, they spent the day chatting it up with Salt Lake teens at the Vans Warped Tour, a traveling festival showcasing rock music and extreme sports.
The feeling around their booth — or rather, their big, orange van — at the Utah State Fair Park, was casual. A disc jockey sat inside the van, spinning tunes. In front, Girard and his colleagues started up a dance party. When that got boring, they rounded up teens for a series of laugh-inducing games, relays and contests. Through it all, they shared their message.
"Eighty percent of adult smokers started when they were teenagers," said Phillip Gonzales, a 25-year-old "truth" crew member from California. "Four hundred thousand people die every year from tobacco-related diseases."
For a lot of teens, the "truth" message is familiar. The 10-year-old campaign, founded by the national health foundation Legacy, broadcasts frequent ads on radio and television. In 2005, the American Journal of Public Health released a study contributing a drop of 450,000 in the number of youth smokers to the campaign.
When Girard asked Casy Hennessy of Ogden if he's seen the latest commercial, the 20-year-old describes the skit verbatim, which compares cigarettes to a popsicle made of glass shards.
"It's a pretty effective campaign," Hennessy said. "The message is pretty clear: This stuff can kill you."
It's a message both Girard and Hennessy have personally taken to heart. Both started smoking because of peer pressure.
"Everyone would ask you: 'Smoke? Smoke? Smoke?' " Girard said. "After a while, I just thought I'd offend them if I said no."
And both quit because they realized tobacco — as "truth" preaches — is more dangerous than it seems.
"I didn't want to die," Hennessy said. "It's that's simple."
e-mail: estuart@desnews.com