Responses by Jennifer Kellogg, lead designer and MJ Deery, lead copywriter/purpose practice director, Duncan Channon
Background: Flavors Hook Kids is the country’s largest-ever campaign to educate parents and community leaders about a disturbing reality: that flavored tobacco and e-cigarette products are hooking kids when their brains are most susceptible to addiction. The campaign exposes how tobacco companies co-opt our kids’ love of flavors with tobacco products that look, smell and taste nothing like cigarettes.
Reasoning: We needed to demonstrate how flavored tobacco products are hiding in plain sight—allowing kids to indulge in flavored tobacco under the noses of adults, including those viewing the campaign. We juxtaposed images of kids using actual flavored tobacco products—that look like candy, snacks and flash drives—with statistics and messaging to destroy the perception that these products are harmless to kids.
Challenges: Making sure the campaign doesn’t point the finger at kids, and instead inspires parents and adults to protect kids from this stealthy new threat. We wanted adults viewing the campaign to experience how easy it is for kids to be duped into thinking these candy-like products are harmless—precisely because they did upon first glance at these images.
Favorite details: The visual impact. Our spotlight on flavored tobacco products gets people to see items that look like ordinary snacks and school supplies in a whole new way. In exposing the world of flavored tobacco, we also upend any warm feelings that come from seeing kids enjoying what appears to be candy with copy lines that reveal the true harm.
Anything new: In researching the vast world of flavored tobacco, we realized we would have been just as fooled as the public in overlooking this threat. We were surprised not only by the scale of the flavored tobacco problem—15,500 flavors and counting—but also flavors that prey on the imagination of children. It made us look at everything twice.
Visual influences: The candy aisle. The campaign features bright candy colors to portray the reality of how flavored tobacco attracts kids. If this is how kids experience flavored tobacco, we decided that this is how adults should experience it too. We can’t stop it if we don’t see it.
Browse Projects
