By Daily Press staff
Designed especially for the city of Santa Monica by Doonesbury creator and Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau, a sticker featuring the character “Mr. Butts”has been adapted for use by the growing number of smoke-free beaches along the California coast.
The sticker had its Santa Monica debut in August of 2005 as part of City Hall’s public awareness campaign to make sure people know there is no smoking on Santa Monica beaches. The design by Trudeau appears on 600 beach trash cans in Santa Monica.
The Tobacco Education Clearinghouse of California (TECC) made the request for a statewide version to meet the demands of the growing number of California cities that have declared their beaches smoke-free and need high quality community education materials. The new statewide version replaces the specific mention of Santa Monica with a more general smoke-free beach message and also includes the message in Spanish. The new sticker is featured on TECC’s Web site (http://www.tobaccofreecatalog.org/).
The Santa Monica City Council enacted the ordinance prohibiting smoking on the beach in 2004 shortly after passing a similar prohibition for its parks. Santa Monica was one of the first cities in the state to do so, with 25 cities now having smoke-free beaches.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 25, 2006. Read the original PDF.