This public service spot thrusts us into a high-energy cheerleading contest. We’re watching what seems like a live, televised sports event: the "National Cheerleading Finals."
You can feel the excitement. The announcer introduces "your returning national champions," as a group of athletic teens from Jarvis High School storms the floor. The champs proceed to strut their stuff in a high-precision demonstration. The cheerleaders execute perfectly synchronized back-flips as part of a routine that would make not only gymnast Olga Korbut, but also Busby Berkeley, proud.
Judging from their facial expressions, the judges are certainly impressed. The cheerleading team’s performance is about to culminate with an aerial flair. A woman cheerleader is tossed high up into the air by two teammates who are poised to catch her. One of those waiting on terra firma, however, isn’t up the task; she starts coughing uncontrollably. As a result, the air-born cheerleader makes a less-than-graceful thud of a landing. Teammates rush to her aid, and drag the injured girl off the stage.
The judges shake their heads in disbelief as all eyes are on the guilty lass with the smoker’s cough. She looks around sheepishly, lets out a cheer to try to save face—but to no avail—and then slinks away.
A supered end tag reads: "Tobacco. It can even kill your moment. Question it." Appearing on screen is the address of a Web site: questionit.com.
Entitled "Cheerleader," the anti-smoking spot is one of three for the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi directed by Robert B. Martin Jr. of Los Angeles-based Slo Graffiti—and conceived by a creative team at agency Maris, West & Baker, Jackson, Miss., consisting of: creative director Eric Hughes, associate creative director/art director Kelsey Rickenbaker-Bigelow, copywriter Laurian Lee and freelance producer Kurt Kirchner.
The campaign marks Martin’s commercial directing debut. A seasoned casting director, Martin diversified into moviemaking with the 1999 independent feature mockumentary Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool, which he co-directed with former casting agency partner Aaron Priest (who is now a director at bicoastal/international Partizan). "What appealed to me about the [Partnership For A Healthy Mississippi] campaign was that it didn’t take a heavy-handed approach—that smoking will kill you," explained Martin. "Rather, it used humor and centered on smoking’s impact on your everyday life."
This everyday aspect of the campaign was advanced by the creative approach colorist Robert Curreri of Santa Monica-based R!OT brought to the work. "We went for something very straight-forward—a look that was subtle, real and unaffected, not something that looked like a ‘commercial,’" related Martin.
Martin’s support team at Slo Graffiti included executive producer Laura Howard, as well as producer Tracy B. Broaddus. DP Guillermo Navarro shot the package of commercials on location in Los Angeles.
Blue of Flipside Editorial, Santa Monica, served as offline editor, while Jay Rogers was the assistant editor for Flipside. Audio mixer was Nathan Dubin of Margarita Mix de Santa Monica.
Like "Cheerleader," the other two spots in the anti-smoking package have storylines about young people who are on the verge of something big, only to lose out because of tobacco. For example, "Car" centers on the final two survivors in a competition to win a new automobile with the last one to keep a hand on the vehicle to be declared the winner. A young woman appears destined to capture the four-wheeled prize as her foe is on the verge of falling asleep. But she snatches defeat from the jaws of victory when she coughs, causing her hand to come off the car.
Similarly, in "VJ," a woman loses out in a contest of hopeful video DJs when a cough leaves an unsightly smear of phlegm on her cheek. All three spots conclude with the "kill your moment" and "Question It" taglines.
