This spot caps an Arizona Department of Health Services campaign that follows Chuck, a smoker who would like to quit but doesn’t seem to have the resolve to do so. Previous ads in this series show him rationalizing his problem, talking about the grief he has to put up with from others who don’t like him smoking, the fact that he’s come to reconcile that his breath stinks ("Hey, the breath mint companies have to make money, too"), and that his taste buds are shot ("Everything tastes like chicken … But hey, I like chicken"). Chuck observes that the only times he doesn’t light up are when he’s sleeping or sitting on the toilet—and "I can’t sit on the toilet all day."
The black-and-white campaign shows Chuck talking into the camera, directly to the viewers. The approach elicits sympathy for Chuck—and if agency Riester-Robb, Phoenix, has its way, it will also generate empathy from other smokers who are frustrated with their inability to kick the habit. In "Line," though, Chuck has made a breakthrough. The spot opens with the supered graphic: "Chuck. He quit smoking."
We then see Chuck who relates "I quit smoking here," at which point a black blip appears on screen. Chuck has his finger on the blip and from it, draws a straight black line across the screen which represents how things were supposed to go, meaning that quitting would ideally go without a hitch and last the rest of his life. "But I needed a cigarette," continues Chuck, who puts another blip in the straight line. And then other blips follow, each marking a point at which Chuck weakened and smoked a cigarette.
But then the line continues sans blips as Chuck relates that he stayed clean for a day, then another and another. "Now I’m getting it," he says. "It’s blipping amazing."
Helping to make the spots effective is the fact that they don’t preach. Chuck seems like an everyday guy, a bit of an underdog who’s trying, sometimes less than wholeheartedly, to find a way out. Each ad is tagged with a toll-free hotline number, which offers help to smokers who want to quit.
Riester-Robb’s team consisted of creative director/art director Dave Robb, copywriter Amy Dominy and producer Louise Parker.
The campaign was directed by Chris Hooper from Tool of North America, Santa Monica. Deirdre Harrington executive produced for Tool, backed by head of production Jennifer Siegel and producer Leslie Chilcott. "Line" was shot at Raleigh Studios Manhattan Beach by DP David Stockton.
Editor/sound designer on "Line" was David Frame of MWP Editorial, Santa Monica, with Gary Le Vine executive producing for MWP. Compositing and online were completed at Mixin Pixls, Santa Monica, where company co-founder/ Henry artist Mark Dennison worked on the campaign—including creating the line and blips deployed in "Line." Audio mixer was Mark Meyuhas of POP Sound, Santa Monica.
