I need to rant about a commercial that I think is so stupid I honestly thought it was a joke the first time I saw it. It's for Thrive, the miracle 'quit smoking gum'. I have many issues with the ad...the cheap Angelina Jolie knock off, the length of the campaign, and the fact that the commercial has actually been re-edited to launch Thrive Lozenge. That’s right, this piece of shit actually ran for months and someone thought it was so good they simply had to keep using it! Either that or it was cheaper than paying faux-Angelina to make another brilliant spot.
As someone who works in advertising and feels consumer insights are essential to a campaign's success, I feel I need to point out how shitty this ad really is.
It all lies in the ad's tagline- 'Lose the Smoke, Keep the Fire'. Are they seriously building off the insight that smokers are filling their lungs with nicotine, tar, and cancer because it makes them feel cool??? Its 2009, not the 1970's. James Dean is dead! (He smoked right?). This offends me both as a smoker, and as someone who works in the industry.
People don't smoke because they think it makes them feel cool, we're not 12 anymore! And for all those 12 year-olds that think they're cool but don't wanna 'lose the smoke' because they wanna 'keep the fire', they’re probably too young/broke to buy the product anyways.
There are a million reasons to quit smoking (health, money, being a social outcast, it's cold and I don't want to go outside and freeze my ass off), all of which would have been a better insight to build your campaign around then 'stay cool'. Did they honestly gather a focus group of smokers and come up with this garbage?
Anyways you be the judge...sorry the link isn't the best quality but it's the only one I could find
Be warned though...I'm told that every time someone watches it a baby cries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY4SEn0JZDM
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