Advertising or Porn?

A new French adver­tise­ment aimed at stop­ping teenagers from smok­ing is draw­ing some con­tro­ver­sial mar­ket­ing buzz:

A new French anti­smok­ing adver­tise­ment aimed at the young that plays off a porno­graphic stereo­type has got­ten more atten­tion than even its cre­ators intended, and crit­ics sug­gest that it offends com­mon decency and cre­ates a false anal­ogy between oral sex and smoking…

The slo­gan is bland enough: “To smoke is to be a slave to tobacco.” But it accom­pa­nies pho­tographs of an older man, his torso seen from the side, push­ing down on the head of a teenage girl with a cig­a­rette in her mouth. Her eyes are at belt level, glanc­ing upward fear­fully. The cig­a­rette appears to emerge from the adult’s trousers.

Two other ads show young men in the same posi­tion as the girl, though the adult is wear­ing a suit jacket and a watch.

The adver­tise­ment — “fumer, c’est etre l’esclave du tabac” — is bril­liant, but I doubt it will directly con­vince any young peo­ple to stop smok­ing or never start. (Only active, involved par­ents can do that.)

First, it is provoca­tive enough to gar­ner max­i­mum pub­lic­ity, which greatly increases the ad’s atten­tion, expo­sure, and result­ing dis­cus­sions about the topic at hand. Sec­ondly, teenagers obsess about sex (as do most adults even though few will admit it), so this is play­ing to their nat­ural incli­na­tions and curiosi­ties. Third, it sub­tly addresses another issue that has been gain­ing more atten­tion thanks to jour­nal­ists like Nicholas Kristof: the increase in sex-trafficking and slav­ery of girls and boys through­out the world. Both of these cam­paigns need all the help they can get. Fourth, it con­veys the mes­sage that new smok­ers (young peo­ple) are being used and abused by tobacco com­pa­nies (sym­bol­ized by older men in suits).

I expect that this adver­tise­ment will win sev­eral awards.