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truth® Spins On
12/9/2008
Washington, DC-Area Man Wins DJ Contest
Washington, DC – Desmond Williams, a Washington, DC-based DJ and producer, created an electronica-infused, three-minute riff to be named the winner of an online DJ contest hosted by truth®. The youth smoking prevention campaign asked fans to create their own remixes of a song from the latest truth® advertising campaign, the Sunny Side of truth®. Mr. Williams’ version was voted the best of all the entries submitted on imeem.com, a popular music community. Mr. Williams won a $600 DJ software package, and his track will be promoted by truth® on popular music sites like imeem, iTunes, and Pandora, among others. The winning track can be heard at http://www.imeem.com/thetruth/.
Williams, a professional engineer, producer, and musician for more than 20 years, re-mixed his own version of the song from the campaign television ad “Typo.” The ad, which ran earlier this year, featured animated typewriters, documents and liquid paper filling the air, accompanied by teens who sing about how statistics on the millions of deaths from tobacco “must have been a typo.” David Yazbek, a Tony-nominated lyricist and composer, wrote the original “Typo” music featured in the tongue-in-cheek campaign.
Mr. Williams joins the nine innovative DJs and bands who previously re-mixed songs from the “Sunny Side of truth®” advertising campaign in styles from house and hip-hop to electro. As part of the truth® “ReMix” project launched in July 2008, DJs and bands such as Cobra Starship, Diplo, Kaskade, Mix Master Mike and more were asked to put their own twist on songs from the campaign. The ReMix music tracks were then packaged as a special CD compilation and available for download online as part of a comprehensive effort to reach more of the teen audience through technology and alternative media & entertainment.
“Music and digital media both play a big role in teens’ lives, and the ReMix project was a way to naturally tap both those interests to further extend truth®’s important messages into the teen community,” said Dr. Cheryl Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation®, the national public health foundation which directs and funds the truth® campaign. “From having a presence on popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, to online games that teens can play with their friends, to truth®-themed e-mails teens can send to their peers – digital media helps us engage and inform teens about the dangers of tobacco use. The ReMix contest won by Desmond Williams was another way for us to encourage participation from teens and influencers, keeping truth® top of mind with tastemakers and spreading its messages through new channels.”
Desmond Williams is best known for his intricate and dub-infused production style. After working with reggae dub legend Scientist for a few years, he was hired by members of Thievery Corporation to work in their fledgling studio where he introduced them to the use of computers for studio production. He engineered and played instruments on most of the tracks on their "Mirror Conspiracy" and "The Richest Man in Babylon" releases, as well as producing his own debut CD entitled "Delights of the Garden". Desmond's most recent release is a collaboration with the renowned reggae group, Midnite, called "Kayamagan" which has been hailed as one of the best reggae albums to come out in years. Desmond is currently mixing a follow up to Kayamagan and getting the tracks ready for his next solo release.
The original ReMix tracks released last summer were featured on outlets like Facebook, MySpace, Pandora, iLike and other sites already popular with teens. In addition, the artists involved with the campaign also created video podcasts featured on thetruth.com Web site. The ReMix music itself was integrated into television programming on cable channels popular with teens, like VH1, G4, SiTV and fuse. Podcasts are still playing on:
- Fuel is showing podcasts of Kenny Dope, Mix Master Mike, and Cobra Starship during its show, The Daily Habit, four times per week through the end of the year.
- The N will run two-minute videos of Mix Master Mike, Cobra Starship and Kaskade through December 22.
The ReMix Web site, compact disc packaging and Mobile Widget design were all created by Arnold Worldwide of Boston, the foundation’s agency of record for truth® advertising. The ReMix music was produced in conjunction with Rock River Music.
More information on Desmond Williams can be found at http://www.desmondwilliams.net/.
Complete bios of all the original ReMix DJs and bands as well as the streaming versions of their remixes are available at www.thetruth.com/remix. For full downloadable versions, visit iTunes.
In other truth®-related news, a new game on the truth® Web site features one of the cartoon characters from the “Sunny Side of truth®” campaign. In the game “Cupid’s Revenge”, players guide a tough-guy Cupid through a sky filled with some of the 4000+ chemicals found in cigarette smoke. Every time Cupid crashes into one of these containers of chemicals, it is destroyed and Cupid can fly a little higher. If players successfully destroy enough chemicals while dodging cancer as it flies around, they can submit their names to the leader board and challenge a friend to beat their scores. The game can be found at http://www.thetruth.com/games/toughLove/.
BACKGROUND ON THE truth® CAMPAIGN
truth®, launched in February 2000, is the largest national youth smoking prevention campaign and the only national campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. The campaign exposes the tactics of the tobacco industry, the truth about addiction, and the health effects and social consequences of smoking. truth® allows teens to make informed choices about tobacco use by giving them the facts about the industry and its products.
The American Legacy Foundation® is dedicated to building a world where young people reject tobacco and anyone can quit. Located in Washington, D.C., the foundation develops programs that address the health effects of tobacco use, especially among vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the toll of tobacco, through grants, technical assistance and training, partnerships, youth activism, and counter-marketing and grassroots marketing campaigns. The foundation’s programs include truth®, a national youth smoking prevention campaign that has been cited as contributing to significant declines in youth smoking; EX®, an innovative public health program designed to speak to smokers in their own language and change the way they approach quitting; research initiatives exploring the causes, consequences and approaches to reducing tobacco use; and a nationally-renowned program of outreach to priority populations. The American Legacy Foundation was created as a result of the November 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) reached between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. Visit http://www.americanlegacy.org/.
The American Legacy Foundation® is equipped with a VideoLink ReadyCam™ television studio system, providing you with faster, easier access to the nation’s leading tobacco prevention and cessation experts. From this in-house broadcast studio, Legacy can offer immediate access to its experts to comment on breaking news, new research publications, or any news related to youth smoking prevention, adult quit smoking programs, or any issue related to smoking. The studio is connected directly to the Vyvx fiber network and is always available for live or pre-taped interviews. To arrange an interview using the ReadyCam, please contact Julia Cartwright at 202-454-5596.
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Contact: Patricia McLaughlin, 202-454-5560, pmclaughlin@americanlegacy.org; Trish O'Callaghan, 215-525-1404, pocallaghan@ad-itive.com