Saatchi & Saatchi X has launched a groundbreaking new outdoor campaign for the stop smoking charity QUIT® which turns received wisdom about smoking on its head.
Instead of the well-trodden path of warning smokers about the dangers of cigarettes - including, ultimately, death - the campaign inspires and excites them about the positivity of life. The work dramatizes this innovative and unexpected new strategy by depicting conversations which encapsulate life-changing events happening to people in the later years of their lives. The campaign is summed up by the strapline: Life. It's worth sticking around for.
In one execution, a 74-year old man asks his 77-year old 'girlfriend' to marry him. In others, an old lady discovers the book she wrote in her youth is about to be published, an old man becomes a grandfather and a father is overjoyed to hear that his son has been selected for a trial with a Premiership football club.
The campaign is running on Adbins media across central London in December and January, a period where many smokers consider quitting the habit. QUIT hope to secure funding to roll the campaign out nationwide throughout 2009.
Adbins media was specifically chosen as it addresses smokers directly at 'point-of-puff'. The five-to-seven minutes it takes to smoke a cigarette is the perfect amount of time to read the copy, consider the message and, potentially, use their mobile to call the Quitline® 0800 002200.
Copywriter Ant Melder said: "Most smokers know and understand the dangers of smoking. Simply reinforcing them would have a limited effect. We realised that hope rather than fear could be a powerful message for us - that we could inspire smokers to quit rather than scaring them into it."
Steve Crone, Chief Executive of QUIT, said: "These innovative posters are a great initiative to target smokers and make them think about what they might miss out on by continuing to smoke. The cigarette bins provide an ideal opportunity to signpost smokers toward the help available if they do want to quit. Anyone inspired by the posters can call the Quitline for free help and advice."