Focus Group Study of Youth Reactions to Creative Advertising Concepts Designed to Reduce Tobacco Use

EXPERIMENTER PHASE 1
RESEARCH
STIMULI

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EXPERIMENTER PHASE 1 RESEARCH
CREATIVE CONCEPT STIMULI
DESCRIPTION OF PACKAGE
This package includes the following elements for each of the five creative concepts that will be
shown to focus group participants:
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Title slide with the name of the creative concept
Script for the TV ad
Key frame that visually represents the overall look and feel of the TV ad

These key frames serve as the foundation for the video storyboards that will be used as stimuli
for focus groups. The video storyboards will consist of multiple key frames edited together
with a produced audio voiceover of the scripts.

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TINY BULLY

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TINY BULLY
“If You Knew Me”
:30 TV
TINY BULLY VO: If you knew me, you’d know that when I say go outside, we go outside.
We see Tiny Bully, about four inches tall, cocky smile, high voice, shoving a bigger kid down the hallway of a high school, the kid
bouncing off lockers, trying to resist, but to no avail.
TINY BULLY VO: If you knew me, you’d know that when I say fork it over, you fork it over.
We see Tiny Bully taking money from a girl. “Nine, ten, eleven, keep going.”
TINY BULLY VO: If you knew me, you’d know when I say pause the game, you pause the game. ‘Cause like, whatever the score is,
ask me if I care.
We see Tiny Bully dragging a kid by the ear away from a video game while his friends throw up their hands in frustration.
When the kid finally succumbs, the Bully hops into his breast pocket.
The kid goes outside and we see from long shot that he pulls something out of his breast pocket and brings it to his mouth. From
another angle, we see smoke rising about the kid’s face.
TINY BULLY VO: And if you knew me, you’d know you really don’t wanna know me.
CARD: Cigarettes are tiny bullies.
CARD: Be bigger than tobacco.

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TINY BULLY

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DON’T ADD CRAP
TO THE CRAP

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DON’T ADD CRAP TO THE CRAP
“New Kid”
:30 TV
This is the story of the new kid in school, who has no friends, is looked upon suspiciously by other kids, and, ostracized,
smokes behind the school. Until eventually he’s no longer the new kid and he’s part of the gang … and there’s another new
kid.
An Auto-Tune-sounding voice sings over a cool drum track, and we see images from the song on screen.
LYRICS:
As the new kid in school
You ain’t feeling so cool.
That’s alright. (all right)
You wanna at lunch be
A part of the bunch.
But you sit tight. (sit tight)
Soon enough though
You’ll be one of the gang
And some other new kid
Gonna be like, “Dang”
That loneliness gonna go away
But that stuff you’re puffing now?
That’s gonna stay
At the end of the song, we reveal that the Auto-Tune singer is actually using a voice prosthesis due to his laryngectomy.
VO: Every cigarette you smoke brings you one step closer to this.
SUPER: Tobacco. Don’t add crap to the crap.

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DON’T ADD CRAP TO THE CRAP

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WHAT’S IT COST?

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WHAT’S IT COST?

“Point of Purchase – Taste”
:30 TV
A teenage boy walks up to a counter. He puts some money on the counter. The cashier looks at him. The money apparently
isn’t enough. The boy sighs.
He begins scraping at his tongue with a small grater. He taps the grater down on the counter, causing a few flakes of flesh
to fall off into a pile.
We hear him being rung up.
VO: What’s a pack of smokes cost? Your taste buds.
VO: Nicotine and reduced blood supply damage taste buds, making them less sensitive and making food taste dull.
VO: Cigarettes. What are they costing you?
CARD: Cigarettes. Before you smoke one, find out what’s in one.

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WHAT’S IT COST?

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APOCALYPSE

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APOCALYPSE
“Rat-pocalypse”
:30 TV
It’s sometime in the future. Open on a man running as fast as he can down a hallway of a military bunker. He bursts into his superior’s
office, breathless.
SUPERIOR: What is it?
MAN: It’s the rats. They’ve taken over.
SUPERIOR: Well, hurry! Get the rat poison, for God’s sake!
MAN: There … isn’t any.
SUPERIOR: MY. GOD.
Cut to a city street where a stampede of rats is making its way, trampling people and flipping over cars. There are explosions.

Lots of footage of rats destroying things. A man drops to his knees in the middle of a street, looks up at the sky, and yells “WHY!!?!?”
Amidst the terror and destruction, a spokesman walks into frame and speaks to camera.
SPOKESMAN: Is this what you want? For the rats to take over?
Cut to a group of three teens hanging out and smoking cigarettes (insinuated) outside their school, present day. They seem to hear the
man’s voice, and suddenly look frightened, putting out their cigarettes.
SPOKESMAN (VO): Cigarettes contain arsenic, which can be used in rat poison. So stop smoking.
Cut back to the future where the man speaks to camera.
SPOKESMAN: Because eventually, you’ll smoke all the arsenic. And this will be our future.
A man runs across frame, chased by a giant rat.
CARD: Cigarettes. Before you smoke one, find out what’s in one.

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APOCALYPSE

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MENTHOL DOESN’T MAKE
HARMFUL HARMLESS

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MENTHOL

“Bear”
:15 TV
Open on a group of kids in the forest.
One guy sees a green bear.
GUY: Oh, a menthol bear, what a cutie pie.
When he tries to pet the green bear, it mauls him, and he dies.
SUPER: Menthol doesn’t make harmful harmless.
SUPER: Menthols are as bad as regular cigarettes.
CARD: Menthols. Before you smoke one, find out what’s in one.

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MENTHOL

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BRAND CONCEPTS

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Concept A:
Be Bigger Than a Cigarette
Four inches. Not really that big, right? But every year cigarettes cause people to pay
the ultimate price because they could never overcome their need for that small
thing between their fingers. Don't let that tiny thing take anything from you. You’re
bigger than that.

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Concept B:
Smoking Sucks, You Don’t Have To
Think your life is tough? Smoking isn’t going to make it better. Every day teens who
thought “it’s just one cigarette, once in a while” become regular smokers, losing
control to smoking and signing themselves up for major health issues. Don’t let
smoking make your life get worse.

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Concept C:
Don’t Let Cigarettes Tell You What To Do
Between school, friends and family, your problems are very real. But cigarettes are
not the answer. Cigarettes not only take your health, they take control away from
you. You think things are tough now, just wait until cigarettes start telling you what
to do.

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Concept D:
Don’t Let Tobacco Label You
You are your own person. But tobacco takes that away from you. You can start to lose
control to tobacco after just a small amount of use. Become who you want to become,
don’t lose yourself to tobacco.

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What I decide

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