Briefly Noted/Pitt’s Primack Develops Video to Premiere on WQED-TV

AD IT UP—an award-winning video about ninth-grade students who learn to analyze smoking advertisements and then produce their own media responses to the tobacco industry—will premiere at 7 p.m. Feb. 4 on WQED-TV.

The video project, funded by the Falk Foundation, was developed and coordinated by Brian A. Primack, a Pitt assistant professor of medicine. It was produced through a collaboration between Pitt’s School of Medicine, the Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center, Pittsburgh Public Schools, and Baldwin High School.

AD IT UP stars Pittsburgh-area ninth graders who meet for the first time in a professional production studio. After learning to analyze smoking advertisements, the students are divided into teams, each of which creates its own media message responding to the tobacco industry. The video documents the students’ successes and struggles throughout the production process.

AD IT UP won the prestigious 2006 Bronze Telly Award for local and regional video in the “Health and Wellness” category.