Back in February, 72andSunny launched a new spot in its ongoing anti-smoking campaign for truth that called out tobacco companies for preying on low income urban neighborhoods called “#StopProfiling.”
Now the agency is releasing another pair of ads that similarly employ the approach of calling attention to the tobacco industry’s targeting of specific communities—namely those with mental illness and members of the military.
“The tobacco industry makes $37 billion a year selling cigarettes to people with mental illness. This is a prime example of how the industry sees certain populations solely as business opportunities and exploits individuals with mental health conditions and members of the military,” Truth Initiative president and CEO Robin Koval said. “The consequences of these targeting practices are horrendous, killing more than 540,000 people each year, hindering the recovery of those battling mental health conditions and putting the health and safety of our military service men and women at risk. It’s simply shameful.”
“As the number of smokers drops, the industry is finding it harder and harder to find those replacement smokers,” she told The Washington Post in a related interview. “So the industry is targeting people based on their challenges in life, on who they are. It’s shocking and appalling.”
In 72andSunny’s new spot, a truth correspondent discusses the issue with a clinical assistant professor who claims internal documents reveal tobacco companies targeted individuals with depression and anxiety, while cigarette marketing used to suggest that smoking provided a solution to the problems. Perhaps even more damning is the claim that cigarette companies gave free cigarettes to mental health facilities.
According to the ad, people with mental illness consume 40 percent of the cigarettes smoked in this country. A press release also states that smoking rates are much higher in the group than the broader population, with 1 in 3 individuals with mental illness smokers compared to 1 in 5 in individuals without mental illness.
“For decades, the tobacco industry has promoted to the mental health community the idea of tobacco as medicine. The tobacco companies funded research, supported conferences and funded authors to generate and promulgate the message that smoking a cigarette can relieve symptoms of schizophrenia, depression and anxiety,” Dr. Judith Prochaska, associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, said in a statement. “Prioritizing profits over public health, the tobacco companies have preyed upon this vulnerable population for financial gain. The truth: tobacco is the leading cause of preventable addiction, disease and death among those with mental illness.”
A second spot calls attention to tobacco companies recruitment of smokers from the military. According to the ad, some 38 percent of smokers began smoking after enlistment and according to a press release those in active service smoke at a rate 28 percent higher than the general population. A truth correspondent shares internal documents from a tobacco company with military veterans that include degrading language targeting military members as “plums…to be plucked.”
Unsurprisingly, the veterans are not amused and feel “set up to become a smoker.”
“Big Tobacco saw the military market as being really key to their profits in a way that I think is deeply cynical,” Dr. Libby Smith, professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. “They sponsored lots of entertainment for troops on the military bases, giving away cigarettes. This seemed like a gift to the troops, but really it’s all about just marketing the product.”
The ads build on the documentary-style approach introduced in February and are much more enlightening and effective than previous attempts by the truth campaign to target young crowds by “speaking their language” which were ultimately lost in translation. Ultimately the approach should resonate more with a socially conscious youth crowd than ads which obviously targeted them specifically.
Plus, it never hurts to get Logic involved.
The new spots will make their broadcast debut this Sunday during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.