Crossover Warns Blacks About Menthol Smokes

SAN FRANCISCO Crossover Creative is using stark imagery to educate black smokers about the unique dangers of menthol cigarettes.

The outdoor and print campaign for the California Department of Health Services’ Tobacco Control Section broke this month and features provocative billboards and bus transit posters showing an open menthol cigarette box filled with what appear to be dead black smokers instead of cigarettes. The copy reads: “Dying for a menthol?” and “Menthol smokes people.”

Statistics show that of the 45,000 African Americans who die annually from smoking-related illnesses, most smoke menthols.