Sedgwick Rd. Gets 'Gross' to Curb Smoking

LOS ANGELES A new campaign by Interpublic Group’s Sedgwick Rd. breaks today with a simple message on behalf of the Washington State Department of Health: Smoking is gross.

Targeted at “hard-to-shock” 12- to 14-year-olds, the TV, outdoor, print, radio and online effort relies on deceptively innocent stop-motion dolls to convey the “disgusting ramifications of cigarette smoking,” said agency copywriter Scott Stripling.

The Seattle shop’s previous anti-smoking work focused on the health risks of lighting up. But by middle school, Stripling said, kids not only know smoking is dangerous, but they are already “a pretty jaded, cynical audience.”