This Striking Campaign Takes Aim at the Tobacco Industry’s Latest Deception

Duncan Channon has launched a new campaign for the California Department of Public Health’s CA Tobacco Control Program (CTCP) that aims to expose the tobacco industry’s latest deception: using flavours and e-cigarette products that masquerade as snacks and flash drives to hook kids when their brains are most susceptible to addiction. Four out of five kids who’ve used tobacco started with a flavoured product - with 15,000+ flavours (and counting) on the market.  

CTCP’s massive effort to change consumer perception of flavoured tobacco comes on the heels of a recent FDA statement regarding the role of flavours in initiating youth into smoking and national headlines about how hard-to-spot vaping products like Juul have sparked an epidemic that’s spread quite literally under the noses of parents and educators. On April 24, the FDA announced new enforcement actions and a plan to stop youth use of, and access to, JUUL - one of the popular flavoured products among teens featured in the campaign. 

“Our kids are magical to us. We joyfully document their every moment as they try out the world for the first time, including what foods they love and don’t,” said Anne Elisco-Lemme, executive creative director, Duncan Channon. “And as they get older, we are still there cheering them on - though at arms’ length as most teens prefer - as we get glimpses into their new secret world as teens. Our creative reveals the disturbing truth that during these two critical times in our children’s lives, the tobacco companies are also watching and covertly applauding the power of flavour to attract and addict our kids to their products.”

“In exposing how tobacco companies co-opt our kids’ love of flavours, we introduce the audience to another aspect of the flavour scam, the form factor. These products are designed to not look or smell like cigarettes, furthering the deception that they are harmless - and allowing kids to indulge in flavoured tobacco literally under the noses of adults, including those viewing the campaign,” added Elisco-Lemme.

The country’s largest-ever campaign to take on flavoured tobacco includes TV, digital video, radio, and OOH launching April 24 in all 14 markets across California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento. The campaign will include creative in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese and Tagalog produced with Acento and APartnership, as well as a San Francisco BART station takeover and two painted walls in Los Angeles. New online resources will be available at www.FlavorsHookKids.org.

“Flavors Hook Kids” is the first work by Duncan Channon for CTCP as part of a multi-year new business win for the agency. The win named Duncan Channon as the creative lead for a series of public education campaigns funded by CA Proposition 56 to prevent or reduce tobacco use, including e-cigarettes. The second campaign, slated to launch in summer 2018, will focus on the reality that many young adults who use tobacco socially don’t view themselves as smokers. This new work comes in addition to Duncan Channon’s previous Effie-winning anti-vaping campaign “Wake Up” for CTCP.