When Peter Favat and Alex Bogusky were in high school, the public service campaigns against smoking ranged from stern yet ultimately ineffective warnings to unintentionally silly celebrity-driven messages. Now, 20 years later, the two agency creatives are at the forefront of a new kind of nationwide anti-smoking campaign—one that speaks to teenagers and young children using parodies of hard-sell ads, as well as edgy hidden camera footage of young people confronting the tobacco industry.
Favat, executive VP/ group creative director at Arnold Communications, Boston, and Bogusky, a partner/creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky Advertising (CPB), Miami, are not strangers to the anti-tobacco effort. Favat has spearheaded the creative on the Massachusetts Department of Health’s Tobacco Control program for six years, first at now defunct Houston Herstek Favat, and now with Arnold. Bogusky has similar anti-tobacco credentials, having worked on the Florida Tobacco Pilot Program. The tagline for the Florida spots, "Truth," recurs in the national campaign. (Both creatives continue to work on their respective state campaigns.)
Bogusky and Favat are two of the forces behind the series of national spots for the American Legacy Foundation (ALF). The group was formed by 46 state attorneys general, and was born as a result of the settlement with the tobacco industry over state lawsuits filed against tobacco companies. ALF awarded its account—valued at $150-$250 million annually—to an agency team headed up by Arnold, and including CPB, as well as Burrell Communications, Chicago; Los Angeles-based Imada Wong; and Bromley Communications, San Antonio, Texas.
The ALF recently broke its first round of spots, created by both Arnold and CPB. The ads generated considerable protest from ABC, NBC and CBS. Favat and Bogusky, as well as their respective agencies, found themselves in the middle of yet another controversy involving the tobacco industry and the media; a second series, set to break this month, is likely to do the same.
The campaign’s images range from shocking to absurd. In "Body Bags," directed by Christian Hoagland of New York and Boston-based Redtree Productions out of Arnold, a group of high school-aged kids defiantly place truckloads of body bags in front of a tobacco giant’s New York City headquarters. Like the kids in "Lie Detector," another Hoagland-directed spot, they are rebuffed by corporate security guards. (Because of the risk of arrest and lawsuits, both guerilla spots were filmed under a fictitious company name, LNS Productions.)
The CPB spots, all helmed by Jeff Gorman of JGF, Hollywood, show people using everyday products—soda, acne cream, sneakers—that "cause" the deaths of one-third of their users, just like cigarettes. For example, in "Splode," two bungee jumpers somersault off a suspension bridge and celebrate in mid-air by cracking open cans of "Splode" soda. When a third jumper attempts the same maneuver, he explodes. In "Rid-A-Zit," three peppy girls primp before a mirror. When one complains that an anti-acne cream is burning her skin, her friend assures her that the burning sensation "means it’s working." The girl then bursts into flames and dies. Similarly fiery fates befall one-third of the wearers of "H-Bomm," a fictional brand of flammable sneakers filled with hydrogen, and one-third of the drivers who rent cars from a shady outfit called "Tru Ride."
The guerilla-style protests and humor in the ads met resistance from the major television networks. "The controversy was kind of blown out of proportion," Bogusky says. "The big three [networks] aren’t that important in our media plan. It was kind of funny to watch it play out in the press."
The networks objected to the tone of the guerilla ads, which, they argued, came close to violating the tobacco industry settlement which prevents the ALF from "vilifying" tobacco companies and their executives. Philip Morris, whose Park Avenue offices were actually surrounded with body bags, threatened legal action. After three days, the ALF pulled the spots.
"One of the reasons they were crying foul is that they think we stepped over the line, but I don’t think we violated the agreement," explains Favat, who adds that Philip Morris isn’t identified by name in the spot. "I don’t think we vilified anyone in ‘Body Bags.’ We’re just making a point. Twelve hundred people die every day: Here’s what that looks like."
The CPB spots fared slightly better than Arnold’s and are airing on UPN, the WB, MTV and BET. FOX first accepted all four spots, then rejected them, then opted to broadcast them. Arnold has two more Hoagland-directed "youth voice" ads which have not yet aired. "Hypnosis" depicts kids driving a van through a neighborhood where they believe tobacco executives reside, as a loudspeaker on the top of the vehicle blasts an unsubtle message: Find another job. "Shredder" has the teens tossing tobacco company documents into a gigantic wood chipper—a reference to the cigarette companies’ history of destroying internal memos about the health risks of smoking.
Both creatives scoff at the networks’ argument that the parodic CPB ads might confuse viewers into thinking that actual brands of soda and shoes were being denigrated. Though the stunts in "Splode" are thrilling, Bogusky says the sight of exploding bungee jumpers clearly indicate that the ad is a joke. "When you watch the ad, you say to yourself, ‘This is ridiculous! This is cool! No, this is ridiculous!’ It looks like the real thing, but there are enough cracks in it so you laugh and say, ‘What’s going on here?’"
Favat, who considers "Body Bags" to be one of the best spots he’s ever worked on, thinks that all the ads will eventually be accepted for network broadcast. "Was it frustrating when it didn’t air? Absolutely. It’s always frustrating when a commercial doesn’t air. A few people described the spots as morbid, but who’s out there selling a product that kills people?
"The good news is that the controversy has spawned a new and different interest in the spots," he continues. "My kids’ babysitter told me that her high school spent about a week of class discussion talking about censorship issues, and why tobacco companies wouldn’t want kids to see these commercials. The spots themselves have turned up on several punk and underground Web sites, which is great."
Though Favat and Bogusky had not met prior to taking on the ALF projects, they had followed each other’s anti-tobacco work. "I admired what Crispin and Alex had done with Florida’s anti-tobacco stuff," says Favat. "At the very first meeting, we were clicking. We see things the same way. At this point, we’re like brothers." Though the production of the spots is divided between the two agencies, both companies contribute to the creative process. "Everything is shared," says Bogusky. "It’s a group effort."
Both agencies are encouraged by the release of survey findings that youth smoking has decreased in Massachusetts and Florida. In taking the anti-tobacco campaign nationwide, Bogusky said, Arnold and CPB found a common purpose. "Smoking in middle schools is down fifty percent in Florida. The numbers are showing that this kind of work can be effective. If half as many middle school kids are starting to smoke, then it’s worth it.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
The creative teams in Boston and Miami have solicited the input of mostly teen consultants, aged 15 to 20, who are asked to evaluate scripts and creative concepts. "It’s not up to them to come up with ideas," explains Bogusky. "It’s up to them to help us tell when we’re on target and when we’re off. They are awesome clients. They’re not political and they don’t have hidden agendas. They believe in right and wrong and they aren’t willing to compromise, so in that way they are more extreme than adults."
The teens may have little experience creating ads, Favat says, but they know what kind of ads they like. "They want things to be genuine and authentic," he explains. "Kids see through bullshit so easily. They are lied to so much. We have a lot of respect for the word truth. It carries a lot of responsibility. We don’t want to tarnish the word. We don’t want to be known as the ones who screwed it up."
The next step in the anti-smoking campaign will be a series of spots offering a "Daily Dose" of information about cigarette smoking. "It’s a real guerilla kind of thing," says Bogusky. "We’re going around the country, involving kids in making the commercials. We send out an art director, writer and cinematographer, and make the spots on the fly."
Though "Truth" is a public service campaign, the spots, thus far, have looked as slick as most commercials. "Most public service work is tragically unhip," notes Favat. "The reason why most PSAs don’t work with teenagers is because they’re coming from some government agency, telling you what you should or shouldn’t do. Agencies have a tendency to take the message way too sternly and seriously."
Both Bogusky and Favat are scathing in their reactions to Philip Morris’ "Think, Don’t Smoke" campaign via Young & Rubicam, New York, and Lorillard’s "Tobacco is Whacko" campaign via Bozell, New York. Bogusky and Favat think the campaigns will produce the opposite effect, and suspect that the tobacco industry knows it’s using reverse psychology on young people who crave a sense of rebellion.
"If you walk into a high school classroom today, it’s ‘Don’t have sex—you’ll die of AIDS,’ ‘Don’t drink and drive—you die!’ ‘Don’t do drugs—you die!’ And then the tobacco industry says, ‘Think, don’t smoke’—you’re going to get the opposite [behavior]," says Favat. "The tobacco people look at all the same research that we do, and they must know that."
Bogusky is even more adamant. "So, If you’re a teen, ‘Tobacco is Whacko.’ First of all, I’d like to know when was the last time ‘whacko’ was used in advertising. Second, what does that mean, ‘if you’re a teen?’ Does that mean smoking is a sound decision if you’re an adult, or if you’re a twelve-year-old kid?"
In contrast, the "Truth" campaign is selling a positive, empowering feeling, rather than a "don’t." "We’re trying to build a brand that kids can come to believe in," says Favat. "We’re saying that truth is the brand, and our product is knowledge. There’s a lot of information to get across, and we’re trying to do it in a fun and meaningful way."
