Today, the European Union has launched an anti-smoking campaign consisting of several videos that highlight the nastiness of smoking such as brown teeth, gray skin, raspy voice and smoky stench. Several videos mock these side effect of smoking by making them the price of entry and acceptance by creating products that actually create these side effect.
A man who tries to enter a saloon is turned away until he used a product that browns his teeth. A singer’s producer doesn’t like what he hears until she sprays her through that makes her sound like an old lady who’d been smoking for 40 years. A woman who looks too healthy uses skin cream to mask her skin with a seemingly more attractive gray color.
Created by French agency Ligaris, planned by Isobar and seeded by GoViral, the campaign, which is presented in the form of an online store, seeks to mock smokers with irony and humor. With goofy copy like, “Flies swoon like girls when they get near my Nicoteeth smile!” and “Nicoclean keeps the rings around my eyes nice and dark” and “My mates and I dig our smoky Nicobreeze evenings,” succeeds in a way at calling out smoking’s nastiness. Refreshingly, it doesn’t use “this is your brain on drugs” scare tactics.
European countries are, for the most part, not known for Americanistic “we’re going to shame you into what we believe to be proper behavior;” mightier than thou, cause group-style marketing so it is with intrigue and anticipation we review this campaign and await its results.
