I see what they're trying to do... but this ad is so keenly alive and exuberant. Actually, it's not bad, it just seems like it needed three more meetings and maybe actually talk to a member of the target audience and see what they thought.
I think it's because it comes from the Ad Council, who I wouldn't trust to inform kids of the importance of not setting their genitals on fire for fear they'd do such a ham handed job of it that crotch fires would go from .01% of the under 18 population to 80% in a couple of days. Mostly I state this because besides one or two, (The crash dummies really) almost all their ads are either so damn square they have no impact or they're so over the top and they exaggerate so much that no one would ever listen to them. Most their drugs ones are just a bad joke.
This one is fairly straight forward, but “knock it off” sort of sounds like something your mom would say. You might as well shout “Hey! You kids still use that hep-lingo right? You use those groovy phrases, right? Totally tubular and radical!” to them and see how far that gets you.
Also, you know, fuck the Ad Council because they rejected my anti-smoking idea.
It was really simple too.
Shot of a cancerous lung and a VO says “Cancer!”
Then you show a shot of someone coughing VO: “Emphysema”
Show a guy smoking in a crowded restaurant next to a guy dressed like Travis Bickle.
VO: “People armed with Colt 1911 .45 automatics.”
Focus on the Travis wanna-be as pulls out the gun and fires five rounds off screen. He then looks at the Camera.
Travis: “Smoking. It’ll fuckin’ kill ya.”
Then a black screen with red CG and the VO reads “Smoking: It’ll fuckin’ kill ya!”
Then you show a shot of someone coughing VO: “Emphysema”
Show a guy smoking in a crowded restaurant next to a guy dressed like Travis Bickle.
VO: “People armed with Colt 1911 .45 automatics.”
Focus on the Travis wanna-be as pulls out the gun and fires five rounds off screen. He then looks at the Camera.
Travis: “Smoking. It’ll fuckin’ kill ya.”
Then a black screen with red CG and the VO reads “Smoking: It’ll fuckin’ kill ya!”
And that nearly Shakespearean piece of brilliance was turned down! Can you believe that shit? You could bleep out the fucks! Never even got made for a rough cut. I suppose I shouldn’t let it bother me, I mean PSA’s are all pretty keenly alive and exuberant anyway. But I got an award... for
*A super hero that tells people about recycling, again WTF?! Why is this not their flagship character?
