New & Next: Local Artist Becomes a Messenger for Public Health

Anti-tobacco campaigns are typically the work of governmental health agencies, researchers, and marketing/public relations firms. But a new anti-smoking campaign recently launched by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment tapped into the talents of a local Denver artist to bring home its message with a sarcastic twist.

Local communications agencies Launch and SE2  have introduced a new online campaign designed to connect with young adults in Colorado who are "social smokers" and may deny that they even smoke cigarettes at all.

While CDPHE has created multiple anti-tobacco campaigns, they used a new approach for this campaign in targeting and engaging this elusive audience that has complex values, attitudes, and beliefs. The primary goal of the campaign is to interrupt the progression of social smoking before it becomes a regular habit or develops into tobacco addiction. Research indicates that people who continue to smoke beyond the age of 30 are much more likely to become lifetime smokers.

Launch led the creative development of the "Snarky Sentiments" video campaign directed at millennial audiences, particularly young adult men, who engage in smoking while at parties, hanging out with with friends, or computer gaming. The firm collaborated with Denver artist Paul Michel of snarky greeting card company Mountain vs Plains to develop crude animated illustrations that poke fun at the dating and social hazards associated with casual cigarette smoking.

It was the first time Michel agreed to utilize his characters and wit for a public health cause. The collaborative team hopes this novel approach will be catalytic in shifting attitudes and behaviors when it comes to social smoking.

"I typically work alone on most of my endeavors, so I enjoyed the opportunity to work in union with other creatives on this issue," says Michel. "It was rewarding to collaborate on a project that is designed to create positive change."

Viewers of the "Pool of Puke" and "Little Guy" videos are directed to a website landing page with a quick survey that determines their social smoking behaviors and allows them to download and share additional original "Snarky Sentiments" e-cards with friends. The "Cheap Body Spray" video is a retargeted communication for those who have already completed the smoking behavior survey, linking them to the website EnoughWithThePuff.com for tobacco cessation information and support tools.

Jess Harvat, tobacco communication specialist at CDPHE, adds, "This campaign doesn't look or feel like traditional public health messaging. Leveraging health risks and the threat of cancer has fallen on deaf ears with this young audience," he explains. "With the Snarky Sentiments campaign, we found a different way to connect with social smokers by acknowledging how they feel and look after smoking. The campaign represents a fresh way to address one of the most serious health issues in our country."

Martha Peck is co-creative director and partner of Denver's Launch, a women-owned partnership of strategic marketing and creative executives. Since 2001, the firm has been creating a stir in the nonprofit and for-profit worlds with its strategic marketing and advertising campaigns for health, environmental, social and cultural causes, as well as for consumer goods, destinations, mixed-use communities and more.