Wearing a hospital patient gown, a middle-aged man–seated on an examination table at a doctor’s office–waits alone uncomfortably. The door opens and a doctor walks in as the patient braces himself for the worst and hears just that: “You have lung cancer,” the doctor says in rather stoic fashion.
Yet an instant later, there’s no doctor in the room, leaving us a bit perplexed while setting the stage for what turns out to be an unsettling case of ongoing deja vu. The door opens again and again, and the same scenario repeats itself continually except that the doctor rattles off a different smoking-related illness each time–heart disease, emphysema, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, throat cancer. The male patient is beside himself, at one point moved to tears.
We then realize that each dramatic diagnosis has been imagined by the patient. But as the camera again shows us the examination room door, we hear the doctor knocking on it as a prelude to coming in to presumably give the gowned man the real-world diagnosis and his chances for survival.
It’s a prognosis that the spot never reveals as we cut to an art card which reads, “If you’re not planning to quit smoking, what are you planning?”
An end tag carries the QUITPLAN Services logo, accompanied by its email address (quitplan.com). QUITPLAN is the smoking cessation program of ClearWay Minnesota, an independent non-profit organization that aims to improve the health of Minnesotans by reducing the harm caused by tobacco use as well as exposure to secondhand smoke. Created in 1998, ClearWay Minnesota oversees three percent of the state’s tobacco settlement funds and operates under the jurisdiction of the Ramsey County District Court. ClearWay uses its portion of the settlement to fund research, intervention and community development projects designed to help people in Minnesota quit tobacco.
Hiatus broken Titled “The Wait,” this spot–directed by Allen Coulter of bicoastal/international Hungry Man for Minneapolis agency Clarity Coverdale Fury–represents the first TV advertising done on behalf of ClearWay Minnesota’s QUITPLAN Services in two years. The new creative is designed to get smokers to put quitting on their immediate agenda.
“It’s one of those horrible truths of smoking–you don’t realize the mistake until it’s too late,” related Michael Atkinson, Clarity Coverdale Fury’s creative director/copywriter. “So our job is to help smokers catch a glimpse of what could be around the corner…In other words, help them get in touch with their mortality.”
Rich McCracken, group brand supervisor, explained, “While the question–‘If you’re not planning to quit smoking, what are you planning?’–is certainly meant to get smokers to think about the results of not quitting, it’s also meant to empower them; to acknowledge that the decision belongs to them and they are building their own future.”
The agency creative ensemble on “The Wait” included: Jac Coverdale, executive creative director; Atkinson, who’s creative director/writer; Jim Landry, art director; and Kris Wong-Barrie, producer.
Super idea After QUITPLAN Services’ two-year hiatus from TV commercials, there’s another campaign spot in the pipeline and it’s slated to air during the Super Bowl telecast on Feb. 7 statewide in Minnesota. The Super Sunday buy isn’t new to Clarity Coverdale Fury and QUITPLAN Services–neither for that matter is recognition in SHOOT’s “The Best Work You May Never See” gallery.
Back in 2004, the agency ran a QUITPLAN spot, “Remote,” in Minnesota during the Big Game–not only because the Super Bowl is an event in which commercials are eagerly anticipated and attentively watched by many viewers, but also due to the timing. Just a month or so into the year, many people have made quitting smoking a prime new year’s resolution. A hard hitting message in early ’08–just as it was pulled off effectively in ’04 by the same advertiser and agency–is a strategic deja vu welcomed by both ClearWay and Clarity Coverdale Fury. “Remote” also earned “Best Work” distinction as a man uses a remote-controlled toy truck to fetch a pack of cigarettes. But a remote-controlled plane soars into the living room and drops a bomb, causing the truck and its tobacco cargo to fittingly go up in smoke. A parting super asks, “What’s your plan to quit smoking?”
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