In California, 110 people die every day from tobacco-related disease, and 6 trillion cigarettes are still sold each year. The tobacco industry is working hard to rebrand itself with new, "healthier" alternatives such as e-cigarettes. Flavored vapes, though banned by the FDA, are still easily available online.
This is “Big Tobacco’s Fantasyland” where they want you to believe that they’re acting in the best interest of public health, but their friendship is fantasy and their solutions are fraud.
Surreal TV and online spots, shot by renowned director Emmanuel Adjei, depict worlds of serenity and high-tech sheen slowly peeled back to reveal a nightmare of isolation, addiction, and harm beneath.
In the Wild
Out-of-home, print, and social convey what it feels like to be a victim of tobacco’s fantasyland, using tense, fractured portraiture in which big tobacco's destructive products erase and distort its victims.
The campaign was adapted into six other languages to reach the diverse communities targeted by the tobacco industry.
Awards and Recognition
Digiday, Best CSR Initiative, Duncan Channon & CTPP
Addy, Bronze, San Francisco
Press: Adage. Big Tobacco is living in a ‘fantasyland’ of deception, says surreal California campaign
Creative Credits
Agency: Duncan Channon
ECD: Anne Elisco-Lemme
Senior Art Director: Xavier Rivera
Senior Copywriter: Jeff Phungglan
Design: Darlene Gibson and Shannon Burns
Production: Keenan Hemje and Shaz Kuerschner
Director: Emmanuel Adjei
Photography: Raul Romo