SAN FERNANDO : Students Battle Ad Blitz With Their Own Art

In the battle against the blitz of tobacco and alcohol advertising in low-income areas, eight elementary school students from the northeast San Fernando Valley have gained some big yardage.

Make that big signage.

Earlier this year, more than 350 students from elementary, middle and high schools in San Fernando, Arleta, Sylmar, Pacoima and Sun Valley entered a billboard-drawing contest to counter alcohol and tobacco advertising aimed at youth. Some of their work began appearing on area billboards this week.

At a public unveiling ceremony Thursday on Maclay Street in San Fernando, high atop a beauty supply store, 9-year-old Maxwell Rosenberg’s simple message stood for all to see: “If You’re Depressed, Talk To A Friend, Not A Bottle.”

“I’m happy. I’m excited to see it up there,” Maxwell said, squinting at his handiwork. He sat sandwiched between his mother and the principal of his school, Canterbury Avenue School in Arleta. “The idea is just to keep kids off alcohol and drugs.”

Gannet Outdoor and Patrick Media Group Inc. donated the free ad space after the San Fernando and Pacoima Alcohol Prevention Coalition presented studies showing that alcohol and tobacco promotion outstripped all other kinds of billboard advertising in their communities.

Xavier Flores, executive director of Pueblo Y Salud Inc., said studies showed that of 35 billboards identified in Pacoima and San Fernando, 32 were alcohol or cigarette-related. He said the concentration of that type of advertising is no accident: “They targeted us because of our minority population.”

“It was news to us,” said Ed Dato, director of government relations for the Chicago-based Patrick Media Group. “We don’t have many billboards in that area, and we don’t have a lot of cigarette or beer accounts either. But some of the other companies do. We agreed to help them change the pattern.”

Both Gannet and Patrick Media agreed to cut their cigarette and alcohol advertising in half in the area, and also agreed to allow the community groups to use some of their billboards to spread alternative, health-related messages.

The student artwork selected to adorn the new signs is simple, the messages clear.

“Por Favor Juegen, No Tomen” (Please Play, Don’t Drink) reads one, with artwork of children playing with a soccer ball. Another reads: “We Want To Have You Always, Father, Please Don’t Drink.”

Luzelana Tafolla, 40, of Pacoima, said she believes the program will make a difference.

“The kids read those signs, the ones with alcohol or smoking, and they think that it’s OK to do those things,” she said, pointing to a billboard just a block away that advertised Harley Davidson cigarettes.

“But the kids’ billboards, it sends a better message. And it’s their own work, so it means that much more.”