Hackademy Awards Give 'Constantine' Thumbs Up! for Hellish Portrayal of Smoking

Hackademy Awards Give 'Constantine' Thumbs Up! for Hellish Portrayal of Smoking

'Brokeback Mountain' Star Receives Thumbs Down!

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Teen reviewers honored "Constantine" with the Thumbs Up! award for its accurate portrayal of tobacco use as pure hell and gave the Thumbs Down! to "Sin City" for breaking all the rules when it comes to smoking in the movies during the 11th Annual Hackademy Awards Wednesday night.

In addition, Heath Ledger received a Thumbs Down! for coughing new life into the Marlboro Man myth in the Oscar favorite "Brokeback Mountain," as well as smoking in "Lords of Dogtown." Other Thumbs Up! winners were George Clooney and Jessica Alba, while 13-year-old Gemmenne de la Pena received a Thumbs Down! for smoking in "The Weather Man."

Sponsored by Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails and Grassroots Solutions Inc., the Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! program holds the internationally renowned Hackademy Awards annually to raise awareness of how tobacco use in movies acts as an endorsement of smoking to pre-teens and teenagers.

As the big Hackademy winner, "Constantine" pulls no punches in depicting the effects of smoking: coughing up blood, lungs destroyed by cancer and lives ended prematurely by tobacco use.

"Although other movies don't include smoking, that doesn't necessarily put it down," said Anna Flohr, 16, a junior at St. Francis High School in Sacramento, who belongs to the youth panel that decides the Hackademy Awards. "I think 'Constantine' really showed the negative effect of tobacco. It gave a very active message."

Meanwhile, "Sin City" earned the dubious Thumbs Down! award for its constant portrayal of smoking as stylish, glamorous and seductive. The movie took every opportunity to depict tobacco use as cool and consequence-free. "Sin City" was also chosen by voters on the Web site scenesmoking.org as the People's Choice Thumbs Down! "Hitch" was awarded the People's Choice Thumbs Up!

The gala Hackademy Awards ceremony, held Feb. 22 in Sacramento's Jean Runyon Little Theater, raises awareness of how tobacco use in movies directly influences pre-teens and teenagers.

Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! and the Hackademy Awards are made possible by funding from the AKT Communities Fund of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation and by the California Department of Health Services through Proposition 99. For more information, call 916-444-5900 or visit www.sacbreathe.org or www.scenesmoking.org.

Source: Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails

CONTACT: Gary Zavoral, +1-916-446-9900, for Breathe California of
Sacramento-Emigrant Trails

Web site: http://www.scenesmoking.org/

Web site: http://www.sacbreathe.org/

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