The battle against Big Tobacco continues as the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) launches its latest campaign. This includes seven television, four radio and three print ads that emphasize the serious health risks associated with smoking and characterize tobacco companies as liars. The campaign encompasses spots for the general market, as well as messages targeting specific ethnic minorities.
"California’s new ads graphically show the realities of tobacco use and the hypocrisy of the tobacco industry’s contrived and manipulative image campaign," said state health director Diana M. Bontá. "Californians should not be fooled by the claims of tobacco companies that things have changed. Their product, when used as directed, kills one out of every three users."
In a departure from the traditional PSA genre, one of the ads, "Crocodile Tears," introduces viewers to an animated crocodile who represents the tobacco industry. Created by Paul Keye & Associates, Culver City, Calif., and directed by Bob Kurtz of Kurtz+Friends Animation, Burbank, Calif., the spot was designed to look like a political cartoon typical of those found on a newspaper’s op-ed pages. The commercial directly mocks the efforts of tobacco companies to paint themselves as having a moral conscience.
"What I think is really exciting, besides the fact that we have new ads, is that ‘Crocodile Tears’ targets the [tobacco companies’] repositioning," said Colleen Stevens, chief of the tobacco education campaign for the CDHS. "The tobacco industry has settled its lawsuits and thinks it can just change its image and go on selling cigarettes."
In the ad, the smug cartoon crocodile insists that he has changed for the better by doing community service. But when he’s asked why he is still selling cigarettes, he looses his cool, attacks the camera and stomps off screen.
"They’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars to tell us how wonderful they are," said creative director Paul Keye. "We just want to give it some perspective. The thing about working on anti-tobacco advertising is that you never have to spend time on old grievances. [The tobacco industry is] always doing something reprehensible."
Building on the concept of a political cartoon, Kurtz explained that he wanted the crocodile to be somewhat rough, or "a moving drawing," but he also wanted the character to exhibit a certain realism. "I wanted to get real acting in there, which you don’t usually see in commercials—acting where the actor goes from one range to another. The crocodile’s mood changes in the course of the spot. I knew that the more real I could make him, the more meaningful it would be when he comes at us at the end of the spot." Kurtz worked alongside animator Shane Zalzin, while actor Harry Shearer, known for his work on The Simpsons, provided the voice of the crocodile.
The remaining spots in the campaign are live action. "Taps," created by Carol H. Williams Advertising, Oakland, and directed by Jeff Zwart of bicoastal/ international @radical.media, features an African-American man at the military funeral service for his father, during which he reminisces about his dad’s heroic career that was cut short by a smoking habit he picked up during the war. "My Pops was killed by the people who make cigarettes," the son says. "World War II, the Korean War. He was there… Back then they gave cigarettes to soldiers for free."
"Bedroom," created by agency Imada Wong, Los Angeles, and directed by Jim Money of Angel City, Los Angeles, targets Asian-Americans and shows how a couple’s intimacy is compromised by impotence as a result of the husband’s smoking habit.
A second spot aimed at the Asian community is one of four documentary-style ads featuring laryngectomy patients, which were created by Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, Burns & Associates (GMMB&A), Santa Monica, and directed by Jim Edwards of Barking Weasel, Los Angeles. "Scars of Smoking," which was produced in Mandarin, Can-tonese, Vietnamese and Korean, follows the unpleasant daily ritual of a man cleaning the tracheotomy opening in his neck with a special machine.
Similarly, "Santiago," which targets the Hispanic population, features laryngectomy patient Santiago explaining the devastating effects that smoking has had on his life.
Two general market ads out of GMMB&A reintroduce viewers to Debi, a laryngectomy patient who had appeared in a previous anti-tobacco ad where she was seen smoking through the tracheotomy opening in her throat. In "Debi 2—Addiction," Debi explains her decision to finally quit smoking for the love of her seven-year-old niece. And in "Debi 2—They’re Lying," she discusses her smoking addiction and how the tobacco industry lied in claiming that cigarettes weren’t addictive.
GMMB&A senior VP/creative director Mark Armour, whose firm has been involved with several California anti-tobacco campaigns and also does work for Tobacco Free Kids, a national organization, said the goal with these particular spots was to "strip away the veneer and show real human consequences." He continued: "Part of the message is that sometimes there’s a fate worse than death. These people told the truth about smoking, and their message stops you in your tracks."
Edwards, likewise, has directed numerous public service campaigns in the past, including spots for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and Communities In Schools (CIS), as well as anti-tobacco ads for Phoenix agency Riester-Robb. Still, he recalled, when it came to the CDHS campaign, "I had no idea what I was getting into. The first day, after meeting all of these people, I was so emotionally drained that I just wanted to crawl under the covers." For much of the shoot, he added, cinematographer Paul Goldsmith was "blanched white."
In the end, Edwards said, "I don’t know if we can truly capture it in film—what it was like to be around these people. But the feedback we’ve gotten is that they’re powerful ads and that people are highly impacted."
California’s tobacco education campaign is funded by a cigarette sales tax. Since its inception in 1989, adult smoking in the state has declined nearly one-third, to 18 percent. On average nationwide, about 25 percent of adults smoke.
