Creative social marketing example #6: The Truth.

I have been trying to put out cigarettes for twenty years. No need to send me Chantix, as I am not nor ever was a smoker. But my advertising career began baptism by fire helping our agency pitch the Michigan Department of Community Health. We have done a lot of great anti-smoking creative over the years, so I am an aficionado on the subject. Of course, for years “the truth” campaign has been powerful. I loved crazyworld and how it turns common sense upside down to show just how crazy our government and society is when it comes to big tobacco versus how they regulate other things. So initially, I was going to blog about that campaign. To be honest, I wasn’t as big of fan of the new truth tv spots, which are very focused on the big tobacco executives.  But as I delved into the microsite, I learned the TV was the result of an elaborate social experiment, where they had a fake job recruiter interview real candidates. Of course, when they learn part of their job is killing 17% of the world’s population, pleading the 5th and poisoning their customers, they are not so into the job. Brutal truth but also very informative and entertaining. And if you do smoke, try Chantix. It worked for my brother who smoked a pack a day since junior high.

We’ve done a lot of smoking cessation creative at Brogan & Partners. If you’d like to see all of it, contact Ellyn Davidson at EDavidson@brogan.com.

This blog post is #6 in my series, 21 creative social marketing campaigns.