Big Tobacco ad interviewer meets his match
I'd grown weary of American Legacy's fake-job-interview "Truth" spots from Arnold, but the latest iteration, this Web-only clip called "Nostradamus," ranks among the campaign's best. The phony Big Cig exec almost gets one-upped by a guy who frankly comes off more like a professional actor or repressed psychopath than a job seeker unaware he's being filmed for an anti-smoking commercial. Anyway, he challenges the notion that the tobacco business will cause 1 billion deaths around the world this century, pointing out that the world could end on December 23, 2012, at least according to Nostradamus. If the 16th-century French apothecary and reputed seer is correct, the guy says, that's when "all the planets align ... it'll throw off the gravitational force, we'll go out of orbit, we'll leave this galaxy, and we'll just go into oblivion." The interviewer replies, "Um ... why are you lookin' for a job, then?" More to the point: If the world really will end in three years, now's the time to start smoking. —Posted by David Gianatasio Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 20, 2009 | Permalink
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Smokers are weirdos in BecomeAnEx spots
Although its youth-targeted "Truth" anti-smoking ads are better known, American Legacy also has an "Ex" initiative, designed to convert adults who smoke into ex-smokers. GSD&M Idea City has a couple of new "Ex" spots airing now, including the one above, in which a shopkeeper takes an uninvited spin in a delivery truck on his cigarette break because he so intensely equates driving with smoking. A couple of knee-jerk reactions: 1) The guy's got a bad haircut. 2) He's a rugged individualist who plays by his own rules, living out the fantasy of all those sad smokers huddled in office doorways. He'll become their hero, and they'll keep smoking as a sign of admiration and support. 3) Most delivery guys I've met would've punched out his lights. Now that would've given him "a new way to think about quitting." In another new "Ex" spot (unavailable online), a woman blends a frozen drink at work. What, Legacy's got a problem with alcohol now, too? She'll be tons of fun at the office Christmas party! —Posted by David Gianatasio
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Published on November 12, 2009 | Permalink
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Cigarette-butt mosaics reveal smoking's toll
It might seem clichéd to compare deaths caused by smoking to those caused by guns, drugs, poison, fires and suicide. Still, it's not what you do, but how you do it. And this memorable poster campaign by Indian agency 1-Point Design is certainly a breath of fresh air (ha!) that puts a different spin on familiar anti-smoking themes. Or does it? Well, it turns out there's a different sort of smoking gun, as the work resembles a campaign by the Cancer Society of Finland. Sure, it's the same basic concept, but for a good cause, and this kind of overlap is inevitable in a creative business. There's no such thing as a new idea—no ifs, ands or butts about it! Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Smoking is gay, says new anti-smoking PSA
In what's being billed as the first anti-smoking campaign in history to have any effect whatsoever on teens, this PSA tells them simply that smoking is gay. Yes, it's a parody from The Onion, but it might actually do the trick, seeing as how entrenched the insult "That's so gay" remains in the teen vernacular—so much so that there's a whole non-bogus PSA campaign out there designed to get teens not to use the phrase. —Posted by Tim Nudd Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on October 7, 2009 | Permalink
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Anti-smoking ad leaves you bruised, bloody
It's been too long since we've enjoyed a nice British PSA with needlessly excessive violence. So, here's one. It's an anti-smoking spot from the Birmingham division of the U.K.'s National Health Service, and it compares the physical effects of smoking to that of getting beat up in a back alley. "Smoke, and your body takes a beating," says the ultra-grim voiceover. "Fight back. Quit now." Posters from the campaign disagree with the TV work, suggesting that "when you smoke, it's your insides that get beaten up." Directing duo Rankin & Chris shot the ad, which the agency, Dr. Foster, admits is "quite shocking, but then so is the damage smoking causes." —Posted by Tim Nudd See also: |
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Published on September 23, 2009 | Permalink
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Legacy's mock interviews getting a little old
American Legacy's mock job interviews helped revive its "Truth" campaign. But after viewing these latest iterations, I think the approach has run its course. The drill's become too familiar, with the smarmy interviewer's Big Tobacco pitch predictably rebuffed by horrified job seekers. In "Customers," above, he whisks plastic figures into a wastebasket to illustrate that "one-half of the lifelong users of your product will die from it." I hoped the guy would set the toys on fire, but no such luck. Plus, the job candidates are such goody-goodys. Even recent guest "star" gold-digger Megan, until recently from VH1, took the moral high road, an unnatural performance to say the least. Surely one interviewee, even jokingly, said something like: "No problem! I'll kill 'em all!" Next time, let the interviewer riff off that: "You're perfect for Big Tobacco. Welcome aboard!" How about doing an ad with a throat-hole guy? Nobody's ever done that before, right? See also:
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Published on August 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Even VH1's Megan turns down Big Tobacco
Pointless celebrity guest appearances: Aren't they a sign that something has jumped the shark? Megan Hauserman, star of VH1's Megan Wants a Millionaire, isn't much of a celeb, so maybe American Legacy's "Headhunter" series of anti-smoking spots can rebound from her stultifying performance in this new commercial. Unlike her cleavage, the spot falls flat. Even the Chihuahua looks bored. The concept might have worked if they'd played against the expectations set up in previous ads and had Megan leap at the chance to make millions as a tobacco spokesmodel. Then she wouldn't actually have to pick one of the guys on her show. —Posted by David Gianatasio See also: |
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Published on August 12, 2009 | Permalink
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Throat-Hole Guy didn't even have it this bad
Here's an amusing parody of the Throat-Hole Guy school of anti-smoking shockvertising. The man here lost his voicebox to cancer, and things went seriously downhill from there. The PSA ends with a stern warning: "Smoking contributes to and empowers the imminent robot death squad apocalypse." The surgeon general would surely agree. Via Make the Logo Bigger. |
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Published on August 3, 2009 | Permalink
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Big Tobacco still seeking best and brightest
American Legacy's "Truth" anti-tobacco juggernaut rolls on with new executions from Arnold that expand on the campaign's amusing faux-job-interview format. Above, we get a customer-service role-playing session, with the superbly smug "recruiter" playing a smokeless-tobacco user who complains about losing half of his jaw. It's too bad the job seeker doesn't ask him how he can speak so clearly sans half his face—you gotta be quick with the comebacks to work for Ol' Smoky! The spot below takes place in a college lecture hall during a career seminar. The students all put down their hands when the recruiter asks if they'd consider working in an industry that could cause 1 billion deaths this century. Clearly, none of them are going for MBAs, and they'd never make the grade in law school. |
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Published on July 29, 2009 | Permalink
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Will self-hating smokers help others to quit?
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Published on July 6, 2009 | Permalink
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Big Tobacco now hiring in new 'Truth' spotsI've disliked most recent Amercian Legacy "Truth" efforts, as they've gotten more toxic than actual cigarettes. Arnold's latest spots, however, are pleasing by virtue of their simplicity. The tiresome singing and dancing, electronic voice synthesizers, megaphone tirades against Big Tobacco and gross-out throat-hole close-ups from past "Truth" campaigns are gone. Instead, we get real-life job seekers quizzed in mock interviews by an exceedingly well-cast actor playing an executive recruiter. He looks a bit like Mark Wahlberg, but comes off smarmier and more pompous (which I didn't think was possible, but this guy's good). The theme is, "Do you have what it takes to be a tobacco exec?" The humor's silly, but on point and unforced. The guy informs one applicant: "One job I may have an opening in might require you to plead the Fifth a lot." The job seeker looks concerned, but she should just relax. They told me the same thing at my AdFreak interview, and I haven't done any jail time. Yet. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on June 2, 2009 | Permalink
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Magazines are dying, and so are the readers
Vermont agency Kelliher Samets Volk has launched an online magazine, Nikoteen, to help the Vermont Department of Health skewer Big Tobacco's marketing practices. The site is designed to mimic youth-focused Web venues that deal with music, celebs, sports and horoscopes. For example, there's a fictitious review of the fictitious band Smoke N Mirrerz's fictitious CD Ashes to Ashes. It merited 5.5 cigarette butts, with a perfect 6.0 no doubt reserved for Bowie's original. There's also a poll asking which band member is hottest: the shy one, the dead one or one of two other disfigured ones. I'm not sure how this skewers tobacco ads, most of which use luxe/sexy imagery rather than faux-rockers to entice teens. In fact, since it's somewhat more entertaining and considerably edgier than actual youth/celeb sites, Nikoteen's intense focus on tobacco products tends to cast smoking in an oddly compelling light, albeit a negative one—but negative in a good way, like dangerous and cool. Besides, we all know that sweet, soothing haze rolling over the audience at the Smoke N Mirrerz shows isn't from cigarettes. —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on April 28, 2009 | Permalink
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Mob rules in latest 'Truth' anti-smoking ads
Does the American Legacy Foundation still exist? Does it still do those "Truth" anti-smoking ads? Does anybody care anymore? Unfortunately, it appears the answer to all three questions is yes, since I'm writing about the group's latest effort, which is called "The Infectors." The work features five video vignettes exclusive to MTV. In the spots, a menacing mob of 100 red-shirted jerks obnoxiously interrupts everyday activities to warn people about the dangers of smoking. Maybe the mob should eat fewer gummy bears (a motif of the first spot) and just chill. This is the age of conversational media engagement. No one likes being interrupted, let alone "invaded," no matter how noble the cause. Interruption is so 2004. If I were set upon by that mob during my daily run for scratch tickets, I'd need to take up smoking on the spot just to recover from the shock! —Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on March 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Cigarettes smoke people, say Canadian ads
This haunting Cancer Patients Aid Association print campaign from Canadian shop Bleubancrouge warns us that "cigarettes smoke people." All that's left of them in the motel room and bistro are disembodied arms that are themselves burning down even as the fingers still clutch at their cigarettes. The message that the addiction controls and devours its hosts is even more unsettling than the stark, surreal imagery. Small details—the impression on the sheets, lipstick on the coffee cup—underscore the point that ultimately only the addiction remains. The rest of the smoker might as well be invisible, doing nothing more than raising that cigarette for a few last puffs before the final burnout. Via Ads of the World. —Posted by David Gianatasio
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Published on March 19, 2009 | Permalink
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Colorado unleashes packs of smoky beastsCactus's work for Colorado's State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership (STEPP) filters (ha!) your standard scary warnings about second-hand smoke through a Hitchcock/X-Files/CGI fantasy lens, producing PSAs with considerable visual élan. Yes, I just wanted to use the word élan. Still, it fits: The are cool, moody and compelling, with smoke morphing into ravens (above) and dragons (below) that plague the family car and home. And that may be the problem: The spots are too appealing. They take a smooth, light-menthol approach, as opposed to, say, American Legacy's super-high-tar "We're all gonna die!" tactics. The images may be too glamorous (despite their dark design) to really demonize such a supposedly dirty habit. Also, will smokers respond well to being told to step outside their own homes when lighting up? And will drivers remember to pull over before stepping out of their cars to smoke? Let's hope so. With their brains clouded by nicotine and the tobacco monkey riding their backs, you never know. |
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Published on February 27, 2009 | Permalink
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A record 15,000 butts used to fight smoking
—Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on February 20, 2009 | Permalink
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I guess young people can handle the 'Truth'
A new study by researchers at RTI International claims that the "Truth" national youth anti-smoking campaign prevented 450,000 youngsters from smoking from 2000 to 2004. During that time, the campaign spent $245 million on television advertising. That works out to $544 spent on each successful intervention. According to the American Legacy Foundation (which funds "Truth"), this saved society "between $1.9 and $5.4 billion in medical care costs." Which is an impressively large estimated range, brought to you by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a study that was partially funded by ... the American Legacy Foundation. Personally, I thought the new "Truth" commercials (you know, with the singing Disney character rip-offs?) were better at warning kids about the effects of LSD than cigarettes. But maybe I'm wrong. There actually is a sunny side of "Truth." Via Ypulse. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on February 13, 2009 | Permalink
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Death lurks inside Sukle's anti-smoking ads
Here's some more work from Sukle Advertising + Design's anti-tobacco campaign for the Wyoming Department of Health. See a handful more ads here. The cat headline, in particular, secondhand smokes me. "If you want to get their attention, make it fluorescent green and put it everywhere," says the Denver agency, which also put together those carcinogen trading cards for the same client. |
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Published on February 11, 2009 | Permalink
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He'll save the day right after this cigarette
Utah's Department of Health has a new anti-smoking campaign courtesy of Crowell Advertising that targets boys 12 and under. To appeal to these pre-teens, Crowell created a superhero called Smokerman. A pack-a-day kinda guy, Smokerman is "the one who can't." In the five low-budget but fairly amusing spots, Smokerman fails to save the world again and again due to his unfortunate habit. The press release says the goal is to appeal to kids without spouting statistics, but a couple of them slip in there. Did you know every cigarette takes 11 minutes off your life? How do they even come up with numbers like that? Also, it should be noted that, for a glorified Ken doll, Smokerman is surprisingly hot. Way hotter than Powerman, with his weird logo and tacky neon-green outfit, or Speedyman, with his atrocious '80s hair and freaky goggles. With a fine 'stache like that, you just know Smokerman kicks ass. I hope they start selling the dolls. I want one to sit on my desk and stare blankly at me each time I go to chop another 11 minutes off my life. —Posted by Rebecca Cullers |
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Published on November 12, 2008 | Permalink
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Throat-Hole Guy simply refuses to go away
—Posted by Brian Morrissey |
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Published on October 7, 2008 | Permalink
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When Hollywood actors were paid to smoke
—Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on September 30, 2008 | Permalink
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NYC gets gross with its matchbook covers
—Posted by David Gianatasio |
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Published on September 24, 2008 | Permalink
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