The Thinkboxes Winner - June 2008

Dept of Health - Wanna be like you

 One year on from England’s ban on smoking in enclosed public places, there is an above-average smoking prevalence among blue-collar workers.

As part of its ongoing £5m ‘tobacco control’ campaign, the government aimed to confront this audience by juxtaposing two important aspects of their life – smoking and family.

The Department of Health wanted to highlight the fact that children are more likely to smoke if their parents do.

The hard-hitting TV ad, created by MCBD, opens with images of parents enjoying a supposedly covert cigarette in various locations outside their house, such as the front doorstep or over the garden fence. The action then moves to a child pretending to puff on a pencil in imitation of their parent. The execution reveals how parental behaviour influences children and that smoking surreptitiously is not enough to hide the habit from them. The ad finishes with the strapline: ‘Smoking, don’t keep it in the family.’

The thinking behind the work was to dramatise the fact that children are suggestible and that, perhaps not surprisingly, the offspring of smokers are three times more likely to become smokers in later life.

The Thinkbox Academy judges made this ad a runaway winner of the June award, beating Honda’s ‘Jump’ and Carlsberg’s ‘Goal celebration’ into second and third spots respectively.

One year on from England’s ban on smoking in enclosed public places, there is an above-average smoking prevalence among blue-collar workers.

As part of its ongoing £5m ‘tobacco control’ campaign, the government aimed to confront this audience by juxtaposing two important aspects of their life – smoking and family.

The Department of Health wanted to highlight the fact that children are more likely to smoke if their parents do.

The hard-hitting TV ad, created by MCBD, opens with images of parents enjoying a supposedly covert cigarette in various locations outside their house, such as the front doorstep or over the garden fence. The action then moves to a child pretending to puff on a pencil in imitation of their parent. The execution reveals how parental behaviour influences children and that smoking surreptitiously is not enough to hide the habit from them. The ad finishes with the strapline: ‘Smoking, don’t keep it in the family.’

The thinking behind the work was to dramatise the fact that children are suggestible and that, perhaps not surprisingly, the offspring of smokers are three times more likely to become smokers in later life.

The Thinkbox Academy judges made this ad a runaway winner of the June award, beating Honda’s ‘Jump’ and Carlsberg’s ‘Goal celebration’ into second and third spots respectively.

‘It speaks to smokers in an adult way. It challenges whether being a responsible smoker and a parent are compatible’

Richard Chataway
Acting senior integrated campaigns manager, tobacco,
Department of Health

Ad info

• Client > Richard Chataway
• Marketing director > Paul Brewer
• Brief > Position smoking as the family’s enemy
• Ad agency > MCBD
• Creative team > Richard Stoney, Dave Hobbs
• Director > Chris Palmer, Gorgeous
• Media agency > Mediaedge:cia

Other ads on the podium

Honda - Jump

There was always the risk that, following Honda's live take on this skydiving theme, the more considered version would be an anticlimax. Not so - this film, the centerpiece of the launch campaign for the new Accord, is beautifully conceived and executed. Directed by Johnny Green, it seeks to carry the "difficult is worth doing" message while also using largescale formations of skydivers to form visual representations of some of the car's innovations. The man behind the campaign at Honda is Ian Armstrong; Wieden & Kennedy's creative team included Tony Davidson and Kim Papworth.

Carlsberg - Goal Celebration

Probably, of course, the best goal celebration in the world - this ad features the sorts of exuberant acrobatics, including an awesome human pyramid, that would grace any three-ringed circus. Devised by a creative team of Phil Clarke and Paul Ewen at Saatchi & Saatchi, it was directed by Danny Kleinman and seeks to build on Carlsberg's football heritage while fitting within the advertiser's well-established "world according to Carlsberg" campaign parameters. A beautifully taken penalty too. The client at Carlsberg is Paul Davies.

Also shortlisted for June

Barclaycard - Maid

Devised by Graham Lakeland, Richard Robinson and Pete Bradly at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, working to Gary Twelvetree at Barclaycard, this is the latest in a celebrated series of ads featuring Julian Rhind-Tutt and Stephen Mangan. There's also a nice cameo for the maid - the look on her face as she discovers one of our hapless heroes tied to the bed and the other one photographing him is priceless. Directed by Peter Cattaneo, the spot continues Barclaycard's strategy of tackling misconceptions of the true value the product offers by showing Barclaycard as a better-value money brand when it comes to benefits.

Kronenbourg - Culinary Bubbles

This ad, featuring a surreal restaurant kitchen full of manic chefs using kitchen implements at the behest of their boss to produce smaller and smaller bubbles from one big bubble, was devised to introduce consumers to the new canned Kronenbourg featuring an in-can widget called Dynamo Systeme. Smaller bubbles, smoother taste - as the endline has it. Working to client Sanjay Patel at Scottish and Newcastle, the M&C Saatchi creative team was Nick O'Brien, Paloma Reed and Graham Fink. It's also notable as director Tony Kaye's return to the advertising world.

Microsoft Xbox 360 - Venue

In the film's opening frames, we see what looks like a rock concert, with ever-changing band members working up a rousing version of Suffragette City. But as our perspective pulls back, we discover that the band's rotating line-up is being reinforced by members of the audience. Directed by Ulf Johannson and created by Elliot Harris and Cameron Mitchell at McCann Erickson, the strategy is to show that, courtesy of the new Rockband game, you and your friends can now rock the world from your living room. The client at Microsoft is Michael Flatt.

Sony Ericsson - Caught On Camera

Devised by Neil Clarke and Jay Philips at McCann Erickson and directed by Lynn Fox, this spot plays on the notion that you can share your experiences with your friends in an almost physically real way using the C902 Cyber-shot phone. We're shown situations (a basketball player in mid dunk, two golfers on a green, even a killer whale) "captured" by the phone and whisked away. The campaign conveys the spontaneous ways in which the phone may be used and the high picture quality it delivers. The client at Sony Ericsson is Cathy Davis.

Wrigley - Sardines

This commercial's soundtrack, a new take on the old nursery rhyme "The More We Get Together The Happier We'll Be", sums up this film perfectly as we watch people slowly filling up a warehouse space in a slightly unsettling post-modern game of sardines. Directed by Naom Murr for Bonnie Doman and Charlotte Horton at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Ian Tweedale at Wrigley, the ad brings to life the fundamental truth of Wrigley's gum: good things happen when you get close to people.