Part Barney cartoon, part Second Life experience, part Honda Hate, this entrancing Colorado State Tobacco Education & Prevention effort created by Cactus and AgencyNet with help from Biscuit, Final Cut, Company 3 & R!OT, Lime and Beacon Street Studios on the TV spots is an elaborate creation of an entire online town, called C-Ville, with endless things to do and see. The underlying message within the town is choice. The right choice of course and the importance of choice when it comes to deciding whether or not to take that drag.
PSAs, viewable on the site and currently on air, show the importance of making the right choices and direct kids to the site for more education about making the right choices. Final Cut’s Carlos Arias explains the approach saying, “Kids are so sophisticated these days so we don’t need to make the message obvious. This is a new way of communicating with youth — by not spoon-feeding them. Through great visuals and interesting stories, we were able to build up the intrigue. These PSAs had an interesting, short film style – like a throwback to 80s movies or branding commercials with sing-a-longs. They’re just zany!” And, indeed they are. Zany enough to maybe actually work.
