The Truth campaign got famous by revealing facts about nefarious tobacco companies. The brand would spend decades serving facts about the dangers of smoking to teens around the world. (Enjoy a stroll down Memory Lane. Watch your step.)
But in 2014, the brand needed a new approach. Millennials have the collective intelligence of humanity in their pockets, so spending time hitting them with facts felt small. They needed a movement. Dispite the label put upon them, Millennials did care about things like online bullying, self-harm prevention, saving the environment - we found a way to add anti-smoking to that list.
We had the receipts. We contextualized the opportunity for generational greatness, and celebrated every inch of tangible progress.
We also realized that 13-year-olds make long term health decisions based on carefully considered scientific evidence. And to quote Borat: “Naaaaht”
Peer pressure is the real (real) culprit. But we can’t call out the cool kids sucking down Camels under the bleachers. So what to do????
Naturally, the question arised: “what if we get sued by all these celebrities”?
(an actual slide from the pitch deck) —->
If Bieber wants to lawyer down with us, that’ll only prove our point - and we’ll take those headlines too.
…and hey, people’s lives are on the line here! We’re The Truth, damnit! Raging against the machine is in our DNA. Bring it on!.
