Arnold Plays the Crying Game

Emotional Spots for MDPH Focus on One Family’s Tragedy
BOSTON–Arnold Communications has unveiled emotionally charged commercials for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Control Program featuring Rick Stoddard, who lost his 46-year-old wife Marie to lung cancer earlier this year.
Placing the blame for his wife’s suffering squarely on her longtime cigarette addiction, an often teary-eyed Stoddard at one point reflects: “I guess I never thought of 23 as middle-aged.” Footage of the real-life central Massachusetts couple, taken during happier times and close to Marie’s death, drives home the somber, sobering message.
The ads are primarily intended to remind viewers about the real people behind smoking-related death statistics and conclude with the MDPH’s long-held assertion that the time has arrived to “Make smoking history.”
Stoddard, citing his family’s desire for privacy, has declined to give interviews to the press.