In 2017, Hornet director Peter Sluszka introduced the world to “Little Lungs in a Great Big World.” Created for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products out of agency FCB, the films were designed to educate teens about the harmful effects of smoking in an off-kilter, non-pedantic way. They were an immediate hit, with some serious staying power.
Fast forward to today and now Little Lungs–the anthropomorphic character that “smoked as a teen and never grew to normal size”–is back! This time, he’s joined by a star-studded cast of celebrities including Terry Crews, Tony Hawk, and Sky Katz.
In this spot featuring the voice of Crews, Little Lungs is asked to perform a stunt for an action/adventure movie. But because of his stunted lungs, our little guy falls short of accomplishing the feat in a cheerfully grotesque way. Made in stop motion, the campaign films strike a balance between irreverently funny and strikingly effective.
Sluszka observed, “Stop motion was chosen because there’s a real visceral quality about the harm that can be done. A physical object being impacted by its environment really shows that those actions have consequences. It strikes the right formula between humorous and gruesome for a notoriously fickle age group.”
