A student dressed as an Oompa Loompa from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" was seen walking the state Capitol halls Monday, encouraging legislators to limit youth access to tobacco products.

The student was joined by more than 70 others who participated in this year’s 10th annual Youth Unite for Kick Butts Day rally.

This year’s theme was "Pure Manipulation" — inspired by the Willy Wonka song "Pure Imagination" — so students delivered to legislators anti-tobacco messages rolled up to look like candy in wrappers.

"I think it’s really important for youth to hear it (the anti-tobacco message) from their peers," said Kathleen Koga, a public health educator with the state Department of Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Education Program. "I also think that they’ve been able to capture the attention of the legislators as well as the public because they are so passionate about wanting protection from the tobacco industry."

A youth-led group known as REAL: Hawaii’s Youth Movement Exposing the Tobacco Industry sponsored the rally, along with Health Department and other organizations.

Students then spent the afternoon going door to door to legislators hoping to drum up support for House and Senate bills that aim to prohibit minors from buying any form of tobacco, including electronic or vaporized cigarettes, as well as require that all tobacco products be sold from behind a counter.

"Youth, when they go in there, or other children, they can see it, and it doesn’t look like regular tobacco products," Leilani Swartz, a 15-year-old from Mililani High School, said. "It looks like candy; it’s by the candy; it’s colorful; you can see the flavors."

Rose Navalta, a junior at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, said the REAL movement encourages students to express themselves.

"Artistically we have dancers as well as artists," Navalta said. "And we use that to countermarket to the tobacco industry, because that’s exactly what they’re doing towards us. They’re using what we like to market to us."

Rylie Cabalse, a 13-year-old Wai­akea Intermediate School student, said he enjoys performing as a dancer at community events and county fairs to spread the group’s message.

"They say if you quit smoking you can be like these guys, and we just do like performances; we pop, we break-dance, we do head spins and stuff," Cabalse said. "They just show that like it gets you addicted, it makes you feel better but it doesn’t help you out."

Kick Butts Day is a nationwide youth advocacy event.