YAH! AHA! … hah?
Nope, this post isn’t about some washed-up 80s pop group. It’s about… believe it or not, the Youth Advolution for Health (YAH). … Huh? catch no ball? Read on!
Advolution: a combination of the words “advocate” & “revolution“.
“YAH aims to provide a platform for youth(s) to be involved in advocating, planning and implementing programmes to help youth(s) lead a smoke-free and healthy lifestyle.”
In a nutshell, instead of having teachers, parents, and other old folks telling you what to do, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) wants to get YOUR friends to tell YOU why smoking isn’t the way to go. (And I thought that the astronomical price$ were enough!)
And so, YAH was officially launched last Friday, (2nd of September) at Kallang Theatre with Anti-smoking Ambassador Taufik bringing the house down! But before I get into that, there was the Marketing Strategy Challenge being contested by three teams, P3 (say “P-cube”), Enforcers , and Venom.
Evil Boxy in the flesh…
P3 had lots of ideas targeting “Present, Passive, and Potential” smokers plus a hilarious mascot they called “Evil Boxy”. The Enforcers probably had the coolest campaign name, i.e. “Kick-”S” (”S” as in smoking), but Venom from NYP outclassed everyone with their snazzy blazers and slick presentation. Kudos to all the teams who provided some fresh ideas to get folks to stop smoking!
The winning team from NYP: Venom!
The organisers even flew in a representative from Taiwan’s Anti-Smoking Ambassador Program (ASAP), Allen Tsou, to provide some tips on how peers pressure can work in reverse, i.e. getting your friends who smoke, to stop smoking. One of the taglines during Allen’s presentation really got my attention, “Every 10 seconds, Big Tobacco Companies lose another customer - They die.” Not too preachy, but pretty darn powerful.
Allen Tsou, from Taiwan
And of course, the guy who everyone was waiting for, Taufik Batisah! Man… I didn’t know the kind of pandemonium he was capable of creating by simply being there. Yours truly was seated in the second row from the stage, and the VIPs just in front of me were clearly quite bewildered by the fanatic fans who were screaming their heads off for their Singapore Idol.
“Taufiiiiiiiiik!!!”
Out came the cameraphones, and even a couple of camcorders to capture their idol in action.
Cameraphones coming in handy for the occasion
If you’re interested in becoming a YAH Volunteer, email Janice or Siew Eng from HPB. Congrats to Felix, Harie (did I get the spelling right?) and the rest of the YAH Exco on a great launch event! 
(See the full flickr album & more taufik!)
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