About Kick Butts Day

Kick Butts Day is a national day of activism that empowers youth to stand out, speak up and seize control against Big Tobacco. The next Kick Butts Day is March 20, 2013. We're expecting more than 1,000 events in schools and communities across the United States and even around the world.

On Kick Butts Day, teachers, youth leaders and health advocates organize events to:

• Raise awareness of the problem of tobacco use in their state or community;

• Encourage youth to reject the tobacco industry's deceptive marketing and stay tobacco-free; and

• Urge elected officials to take action to protect kids from tobacco.

Kick Butts Day is organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and sponsored by the United Health Foundation. The first Kick Butts Day was held in 1996.

While Kick Butts Day is officially held on one day each year, our hope is that every day will be Kick Butts Day in the fight against tobacco. You can use our Activities Database to organize events and take a stand against tobacco on any day of the year. By making every day Kick Butts Day, we can win the fight against tobacco use, the number one cause of preventable death in the United States and around the world.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is a leading force in the fight to reduce tobacco use and its deadly toll in the United States and around the world. Our vision: A future free of the death and disease caused by tobacco.

We work to save lives by advocating for public policies that prevent kids from smoking, help smokers quit and protect everyone from secondhand smoke. To achieve our mission, we:

• Promote public policies proven to reduce tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. These include higher tobacco taxes, comprehensive smoke-free laws, well-funded tobacco prevention and stop-smoking programs, and tough regulation of tobacco products and marketing.

• Expose and counter tobacco industry efforts to market to children and mislead the public.

• Strengthen tobacco control efforts in the United States and worldwide by providing support and information to our many partners.

• Mobilize organizations and individuals to join the fight against tobacco.

• Empower a tobacco-free generation by fostering youth leadership and activism.

• Inform the public, policy makers and the media about tobacco's devastating consequences and the effectiveness of the policies we support.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that accepts no government or tobacco industry funding. We rely on contributions from individuals, philanthropic foundations, corporations and other non-profit organizations.