Polish Thursday:Cigarettes Eat You Alive

I’ve decided to launch a new section on my blog: Polish Thursday. On every Thursday I’ll be writing in English about Polish advertising. There are two reasons behind this idea. First – we are used to admire advertising from all over the world, but it seems that we’ve forgotten about our own work. It’s high time to promote Polish creativity. I strongly invite all Polish agencies/ marketers/ freelancers to send me work that you are proud of (you don’t have to translate it into English). I”ll be more than happy to write about it. Second reason is quite trivial – I have noticed that there’s more and more English-speaking people reading my blog. So this section is also for you – at least once a week you won’t have to use Google Translator :).
So today, as a first example – social campaign Cigarettes eat you alive launched by Polish Ministry of Health. Pretty controversial campaign, I can even risk the statement that unprecedented in governmental communication activities. Lots have been already said in Polish media about this campaign but Ministry answered some additional questions I asked.

We get used to anti-smoking campaigns based on shock (if one can ever get used to fear & disgust) – the most „spectacular” examples come from Brazil and Australia. But for the first time this kind of communication was used by the Polish Ministry of Health. TV was chosen as the main medium (the agency prepared also press layouts and radio spots but because of the budget limits they weren’t used in the national media eventually). While talking about TV it needs to be said that spots were only adapted for the Polish market – they are identical with those already used in the other countries (e.g. USA). The Ministry decided to use them because:

• according to the research conducted in July 2009 by Promocja Zdrowia Foundation in co-operation with TNS OBOP – 31% of Poles smoke cigarettes (more often men: 35% than women: 24%; and more often people who live in the cities 500 000+: 37%) which is more than EU average;
• focus groups show that this kind of communication was the most effective; the strongest emotions among smokers were evoked by the second spot (Cigarettes eat your children alive).

The campaign was officially launched on 16th of November and will last until the end of this week (13/12). It will be probably one shot only – at the moment Ministry of Health doesn’t confirm using this kind of communication in future. The cost of the campaign was $350 000, entirely funded by WHO (as a grant for Polish Ministry of Health).

Putting all other things aside, I need to say that this campaign was realised in accordance with so called shockvertising rules. The main principle in this kind of campaigns is to scare the consumer and then immediately after – offer him/ her help. The academic literature shows that fear appeals that fail to offer appropriate guidance and support (eg. Quitline number) are potentially counterproductive (Janis 1967; Ruiter et al. 2003). Hopefully not the case in Cigarettes Eat You Alive campaign.

TV spots:

Press layouts:

Agency: Społeczna Agencja PR