“The Real Cost”


AWARDS

Shorty Award, Best Overall Tumblr Presence | Honoring a Brand's Year-Round Digital Presence on Social Media


The FDA needed more than just an integrated campaign that would resonate with the 3,300 teens who try their first cigarette each day. With 10 million youth under age 18 either already smoking or thinking about it, the FDA needed a new language. Fresh ways to engage with a target audience who is not only inundated with messaging 24/7, but also adept at ignoring most of it.


Just 7 months after the launch of our new campaign, The Real Cost, we saw a 30% decrease in the risk for smoking initiation, preventing an estimated 350,000 teens from smoking. Scroll down to explore the work, including a collaboration with Comedy Central.

“Reasons”


Campaign Idea: With so many disgusting and lasting consequences, *any* reason is actually a brilliant reason not to smoke.

TV spot created in collaboration with Megan Williams

TV spot created in collaboration with Megan Williams.

Comedy Central Partnership


Nate Bargatze, Tone Bell, Nore Davis, Casey Jost & Veronica Osorio share their personal reasons for not smoking. These short-form one-liner spots tweeted out by Comedy Central’s Stand Up handle reached over 63k followers.

Print & Out-of-Home

Here’s how it came to life in radio on Spotify and Pandora.

“World’s Sexiest Lungs”

"#$@&%*!"

“4 Years, 7 months & Counting"

When asked to share their #ReasonsNotToSmoke, thousands participated. The result was a massive user-generated arsenal of responses teens could use when offered a cigarette.

“Run Like Hell”


Campaign Idea: If cigarettes looked as dangerous as they are, you'd run like hell.

Pre-roll that ran on multiple platforms.

TV spot created in collaboration with Megan Williams.

We tried to scare teens at every touchpoint.

And it worked.

“Tumblr Takeover"


Our campaign came to life on Tumblr, where teens are inundated with content that glamorizes smoking. We knew it wasn't enough to just join the conversation. We had to take it over. So, we hijacked common hashtags and ambushed the space with engaging posts, random thoughts, and humorous gifs, that were as powerful as they were sharable. We even took the famous misdeeds of "dog shaming" and flipped it on its head.

Sharable Gifs