Thai health promotion foundation smoking kid

“Student Name”

Prof. Abdul-Jabbaar

English 102

April, 2014.

The Smoking Kid.

According to the World Health Organization, one billion people out of the world’s population of

seven billion are smokers. Furthermore, approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco

smoking, which accounts for one in every ten adult deaths. Needless to say, now more than ever, the

world’s governments and health organizations are keen to raise awareness about the dangers of smoking

and eventually promote the decline of tobacco usage in general with the media as their vessel of choice,

owing to its various forms and proven ability to reach millions of people at a go. This is where we’ve

made our niche. As newly employed members of this advertising agency, it is important that you keep up

with the trends and learn from the ‘Da Vinci’s’ of this industry. Only then can you stay relevant.

Numerous campaigns have been launched worldwide but few have had the impact that the ‘Smoking Kid’

ad created by our competition over at ‘Ogilvy&Mather’ has had. The forty per cent increase in phone

calls to the Thai Health Promotion Foundation hotline after the ad was aired is undisputable proof that the

ad was in fact successful in reaching the masses and motivating them to seek professional assistance.

The ‘Smoking Kid’ ad was initially created with the mature Thai smoking population in mind. This

is seen by the fact that the ad itself is in the Thai language. The ad focuses on adults with the youngest

being at least eighteen or so, and mature enough to fully comprehend and understand the negative effects

of smoking tobacco. The message being passed through this ad, as is the same with all other anti-smoking

ads, is that smoking is harmful to one’s health and should therefore be curbed in order to prevent future

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complications. What is particularly striking about this ad is the fact that it employs a unique tactic where

children are used to warn adults about the dangers of smoking, whereas it is usually the other way around.

This deviation from the norm, in my opinion, is what makes the ad even more effective than the usual

‘shock and scare’ methods that other ads use every so often.

It becomes apparent as soon as you watch the ad that the creators were focused on appealing to the

audience’s emotions. Smoking adults are a common sight in society. Young teenagers who smoke are

chastised in many social settings as being in a rebellious phase. However, mere children smoking is just

downright atrocious and in most cases isn’t tolerated, endorsed or encouraged. Therefore, having a child

walk up to a smoking adult and ask to borrow a lighter would no doubt elicit a particular reaction. In the

ad, the unsuspecting adults were clearly taken aback by the fact that these young children had the audacity

to walk up to them with such requests. Society has us regard children as innocent beings unable to cater

for themselves, and rightfully so. In addition to that, humans are altruistic beings that fend for their young

even though they may not be biologically related. Watching this ad, the audience immediately feels

responsible for these children and even protective of them since they are aware that smoking from such a

young age could mean nothing but trouble for them in the near future. Similarly, the adults filmed for the

ad feel the need to steer these children away from their erroneous ways and lead them on the right path.

Furthermore, the children handed each of the smokers a paper with a message on it. The message was

written in the ‘child’s voice’ and it read ‘You worry about me but not about yourself’. This was a triumph

on the part of the ad creators because it enhanced the emotional aspect of the ad by reciprocating to the

adults the caring nature that they first displayed towards the children.

‘Ogilvy & Mather’ opted to let the emotional foundation on which the ad is built speak for itself

backed only by the simplest inkling of logic. In the ad, as soon as the children ask for a lighter, the adults

begin to list out the complications and ailments brought about by smoking. All the while, the children

listen patiently as if absorbing each word being uttered to them. When the adults stop, positive that their

message has been heard and received well by the children, they are left speechless by the simplest of

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questions posed to them. ‘If it’s so bad, why don’t you stop smoking?’ This is a typical case of deductive

reasoning. The first premise would be ‘Smoking negatively affects the lives of all human beings both

directly and indirectly’. The second premise would be ‘There are over seven billion human beings on

Earth’. The obvious conclusion, given the fact that both premises are in fact true, is that all seven billion

human beings on Earth are being negatively affected by smoking whether it is directly or indirectly. The

logic brought to light by the children through what I believe to be a rhetorical question is one that is

difficult to refute or ignore. It does, however, have the desired effect of getting the target audience to

reflect upon their situation from an obvious but often overlooked perspective.

It is the norm for campaign ads to have a ‘face’, usually a celebrity or well-known public figure, to

reach out to the target audience. The SING campaign has Annie Lennox, the African Wildlife Foundation

has Jackie Chan and L’Oreal has Blake Lively. The ‘face’ of an ad is not chosen at random but is instead

picked based on his or her ability to reach the target audience and propel the ad to greater heights. The

‘Smoking Kid’ has no celebrity ‘face’ but it has something even better and more effective…children.

Annie Lennox, Jackie Chan and Blake Lively, though famous in their respective niches and fan bases, are

not capable of evoking reactions as dramatic and instantaneous as children can. As I mentioned earlier,

children are the universal symbol of innocence and hope. Their effect transcends language barriers, race

and age alike. No single celebrity has or ever will be able to have an impact as strong as that. ‘Ogilvy &

Mather’ used this to their advantage when they got the children to indirectly ask the adults about the

dangers of smoking. The responses from the adults included ‘smoking will make you look old’, ‘smoking

leads to cancer and emphysema’, ‘smoking makes you die faster’, ‘you’ll have to get a hole through your

throat when you’re older’ and so on. Evidently, the adults were well aware of the future implications

smoking would bring about but they carried on regardless. This ingenious manner of questioning them

used their own credibility against themselves. Essentially, despite the fact that they didn’t realize it at the

time, the adults filmed in the ad worked in conjunction with the children to warn themselves as well as

other smokers about the risks involved with regards to smoking tobacco.

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As an advertising agency, one of the most important aspects that we focus on before releasing an ad

is the timing. It would be totally useless to release an ad about the imminent threat of the Second World

War mostly because it ended almost seven decades ago and is now absolutely irrelevant. The ‘Smoking

Kid’ was released at a time when smoking in Thailand was at an all-time high and the deaths brought

about by it were just as escalated. The location where the ad is shot is equally important because it too has

the ability to either make or break a successful ad. Since the ad was created for a Thai audience, the

streets of Bangkok were the most logical place to shoot the ad. In addition to that, the Thai language was

used throughout and had the effect of creating a more homely and localized feel. Lastly, the audience was

borne in mind throughout the entire process. This is evident through the fact that Thai locals are used for

the ad. The incorporation of young Thai children was also effective because it ensured that the exchange

between the adults and children was smooth and free-flowing devoid of language barriers and any other

biases such as race and/or ethnicity. It is also worth noting that the ad features both a male and female

child, which works to eliminate any gender bias. On that very same note, notice that ‘Ogilvy&Mather’

chose to use real life footage rather than shoot a scripted ad. This is more effective because it mirrors the

audience’s exact reactions which in turn heightens the effect of the ad itself.

As of now, the ‘Smoking Kid’ is the ‘Mona Lisa’ of ads. It got over five million views in a span of

just ten days and it brought forth a mighty discussion about the dangers of smoking that totaled over

twenty thousand comments. Most importantly, its release saw a noted increase in calls to anti-smoking

hotlines by over forty percent! A feat unheard of in the advertising circles! Every ad has a purpose that it

aims to achieve either by stating it outright or by subliminal means. This particular ad incorporates a

technique that lies halfway between the two ends of that spectrum and the result is nothing short of mind-

blowing.

Despite its success, many have bashed the ‘Smoking Kid’ calling it an overly-simplified ad that

probably wouldn’t be able to reach an international or even global audience for that matter. This couldn’t

be further from the truth. It is this very same simplicity that has seen the ad aired in over thirty countries

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mostly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Arica, all of which granted it free press coverage. All this occurred

despite the language barrier and differences in cultural as well as social settings. The only tweak was the

addition of English subtitles to allow other audiences to understand the ongoing dialogue. This just goes

to show that the power of an ad lies not only within the stunts and celebrity appearances, but also within

the message and the manner in which it is put forward.

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Works Cited

“World Health Organization Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic of 2013”. World Health

Organization. n.p, n.d. Web. 12th April. 2014.

Robinson, Gwen. “Ad Deconstructed: The Smoking Kid.” The Financial Times. 25th June. 2012. Web.