Much smoke for nothing

The scent of freedom. This and similar promises have been used in cigarette advertising for ages. Yet everyone knows that even two packets of smoky Peter Stuyvesant in a living room will never give off the scent of the big wide world, but at most the stench of it. And even a whole carton of Marlborough Gold won't turn an addicted chain smoker into a cowboy riding freely out onto the prairie or a successful Formula 1 driver. So why not launch a cigarette on the market with a genuine brand promise? This new product is called "Smoke Free" and is advertised with the slogan "No cigarette is better".

Rarely has a package without content been able to trigger as much discussion in the media as this content-free campaign by the Federal Office of Public Health. However, this assessment should only be understood in a positive light, as one of the most important logistical goals of a prevention campaign today must be to generate maximum media coverage - and thus engagement with the topic - from a minimum budget. Although the budget for the FOPH's new tobacco prevention campaign is not small, at just under CHF 10 million by 2012, it is considerably higher than the previous CHF 3 million per year. "Zero, niente, nada" or "wasted taxpayers' money", croaked the first critics in online surveys in a digital smoker's voice. But with the proportion of the population that smokes having fallen to 27% in recent years, it cannot simply be claimed that these investments by the FOPH have gone up in smoke.

A real challenge that would have left a creative in the good old days with an infinite number of ashtrays full of half-smoked cigarettes to come up with a strategic idea on how to further strengthen the success of the generally prevailing anti-smoking movement. Wirz relies on a similar tonality to the already well-received "Love Life" instead of "Stop Aids" campaigns. Instead of deterrent images "against" a weakness in the human system, "Smoke Free" also wants to build more meaningfully on the positive effects that occur when you can give up smoking. "The horrible images on cigarette packets leave most smokers cold," says CD Thomas Kurzmeyer, who is part of a large team at Wirz. This approach of dramatizing the negative consequences of smoking in anti-tobacco campaigns is certainly legitimate, "but it has now been done so often that there is evidence of a certain blunting of this type of communication," Kurzmeyer believes. And at a time when smokers' freedom is more restricted than it used to be, there is even a danger that a certain solidarity effect could arise even on the part of non-smokers "if smoking and smokers are attacked too brutally", strategist Gordon Nemitz also believes. The new prevention campaign, which was developed by Wirz Werbung together with the FOPH, is therefore pursuing a different strategy. It does not want to focus on the disadvantages of smoking, but on the advantages of not smoking.

With clever intent, it uses the resources of the tobacco industry. The campaign began with the launch of a fictitious cigarette. The only cigarette that doesn't harm, doesn't kill, doesn't poison anyone. The only cigarette that really makes you free and independent. And which - logically - is not a cigarette. Around this core idea with the new "Smoke Free" brand and the key visual of the empty pack, there will soon be a whole series of measures. In the initial phase, communication will focus strongly on the new product. It also establishes the claim "No cigarette is better". This will be popularized with a TV commercial that is styled like a real launch commercial for a new cigarette brand. In addition to posters and advertisements, there is also a promotional team that distributes the deadly sample packets in clubs and bars, just like in real life. However, these packs are filled with good tips. Two further commercials, which are designed in the style of "real" advertising, visualize what they can do for non-smokers. Andreas Panzeri

The print subjects for the teaser advertise an empty pack. This is followed by a creative parody of "real" cigarette advertising. The three cinema spots (below) were realized by Wirz with Markenfilm and master director Laszlo Kadar. There is also a website from Assai Dialog + Digital - www.smokefree.ch.