Mellencamp’s son starts Facebook campaign to help him quit smoking

John Mellencamp is getting help from his son to quit smoking.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee is no different than a regular heavy smoker when he picks up and lights a cigarette. Smoking might help to inspire his music composition, but his youngest son does not like the idea.

Speck Mellencamp, 14, the youngest son of John Mellencamp, started a social networking campaign called “1,000,000 to join, my dad john mellencamp will quit smoking” on Facebook on Dec. 1. On the site, he wrote, “I made a deal with my dad that if I get a 1,000,000 to join this group he will quit smoking.”

By Monday morning, there were more than 169,000 members.

The lobby has generated great response so far. Members have voluntarily posted their information about disadvantages of smoking as well as tips for quitting on the discussion wall, and people have shared their experiences, many of which come from ex-smokers.

Sarah Keno, of Wisconsin, has a deep sense of sympathy and a lot to tell.

“Smoking is an expensive habit,” Keno said in an e-mail. “I know my ex-uncle. He is so bad that with my youngest cousin; he has year-long asthma. I hope that John’s children don’t have anything that bad. I know I got asthma from being around my grandma and my friend’s cousins, who are also smokers.”

Keno said that she remembered seeing John Mellencamp describe smoking as “a cool thing to do” in an interview. She said she believes the media should take on the responsibility of the watchdog of society.

“I feel that it’s sometimes genetic,” Keno said, while talking about the peer pressure of getting into smoking. “But however, you learn from what you see on the media as well. The media does market images very well. I think it’s a combination of both. However, you also pick up behavior from your family and friends as well.”

Speck Mellencamp is not the only teenager who carried out this plan.

Alix Powell of Louisiana has a similar mission. Powell said she wants her mom to quit smoking, and she also created a Facebook group titled “If 1,000,000 people join, Alix’s mom will stop smoking.”

“I want my mom to stop smoking,” Powell wrote on her page. “This isn’t just about cancer. The smell is wretched, and she’s always having lung problems. It’s just not cool for her to be smoking around us, so I talked her into agreeing to this.”

Powell said she had tried other possible means to make her mom quit but none of them worked.

“I started throwing out random suggestions, such as I’ll clean my room, or cook dinner on Tuesdays and Fridays, or other random stuff,” Powell said.

Since all of those attempts failed, she realized that she should take an alternative approach.

“I remembered a group on Facebook where if 1,000,000 people joined, this guy’s girlfriend would let him turn their house into a pirate ship, so I suggested a group on Facebook, and she agreed,” Powell said.

Powell said she believes her plan will ultimately work because it is a legitimate deal she made with her mom.

“She promised,” Powell said. “I know that sounds naive, but she has only broken one promise she made to me in the past and that was that when I grew up, I could be a transformer, but obviously that one was impossible to keep.”

So far, there are more than 290,000 members of her page.

These are not the only cases of people lobbying on Facebook.

Hans Ibold, assistant professor in the School of Journalism, told his ideas about using social networking tools to promote awareness for political, health and other community issues.

He said Speck Mellencamp’s case demonstrates changes in the way people, and youth in particular, utilize social media like Facebook.

“We know from research that social media usually satisfy two major needs for youth; maintaining friendships and belonging to peer groups,” Ibold said. “What’s interesting is when these interpersonal needs also connect users with social movements and, in some cases, catalyze deeper information-seeking and civic engagement.”