It's a trap! The clever anti-smoking ad using memes
It’s a trap!
That’s the message this new anti-smoking campaign wants to get across.
Targeting high school and university students the US ad uses clever memes to let young people know social smoking can lead to a serious addiction.
Set to premier at the MTV Video Music Awards, the Truth campaign uses famous memes to warn teens and young adults about the dangers of even casual smoking.
It uses a puking unicorn, a serious looking cat, the overly attached girlfriend and other memes in an attempt to get young people to butt out – or alternatively not light up to begin with.
Organised by the American Legacy Foundation, the campaign says one in four youth believe that social smoking or ‘light’ smoking poses no risk to their health.
The ad also goes beyond cigarettes and targets flavoured cigars and hookahs.
The campaign claims a one-hour hookah session can equal smoking up to five packets of cigarettes and that both little cigars and hookahs contain nicotine, tar and heavy metals.
“Tobacco products are the ultimate trap,” Eric Asche, the foundation's chief marketing officer said.
“Using the social language on the internet to explain the social behavior of smoking makes it hyper-relevant to youth allowing them to feel like we are talking with them in their vernacular.”
