Smoking & Marketing

One thing to remember about marketing anything is the target audience. Who's the customer?

Dear American Cancer Society,

When you're trying to convince young people not to smoke, leave out the old people. No teenager or twenty-something is going to ever think they'll be that old or that sick. You're not scaring them. They just don't relate

Come on, tell me the truth. When you were 19 or 20 would you really think of what you'd be like at 50, 60, or beyond? Or were you thinking about hot guys (or girls), fashion, the next place to go on Friday night?

So there's our target. Creatures who care about meeting new people and where to go next. How do we target them? Bring it down to their level. What are the negatives of smoking that they might fear? How about this?

Young people care about being appealing to others in their peer group. Reminding them that they'll smell like an ashtray if they smoke, might go further than showing them an old person wheezing. 

Here's three ways to reach them ~

Scene One; Give them the dynamics of two young people taking;

Cute boy & girl talking. Girl says goodbye and walks away. Cute boy's friend walks up. 

Friend; Hey! She's hot. You ask her out?

Cute boy: Naw, she smells like an ashtray. 

They both scrunch up their nose like they smell something bad and walk away. 

Scene Two; 

Boy and girl kiss as they pull apart girl says; "Oh, you're a smoker." and backs away covering her mouth. Look of disgust on her face. 

Scene Three; 

Two cute guys or girls discussing kissing. 

1st person; Ever kiss a smoker?

2nd person: Yeah, it's kind of like kissing an ash tray. 

1st person: Gag!

Both laugh and make gagging, vomiting noises. 

Voice over; Don't be the ash tray, quit today.

There ya go! Three commercials that will grab their attention and let them relate. Bottom line; Make smoking unpleasant to their peers and you'll hit a nerve.