Getting Tough With Moms-to-Be

The creative department at Luckie & Co. was faced with a tough challenge: how topersuade undereducated and underemployed women not to smoke while pregnant.

“The research showed a touchy-feely approach wouldn’t work,” said Martin Buchanan, executive creative director at the Birmingham, Ala., shop. “So the motivation had to be selfish: ‘Think what your life will be like when your child is always sick.’ “

Two television spots take some risks to make that point. “Department of Babies,” a 60-second PSA, shows a weary woman trying to convince a stone-faced bureaucrat to exchange her wailing infant for another.