Rapper/actor Nick Cannon has become the new spokesperson for the American Legacy Foundation's anti-smoking campaign, Truth. The Gigolo hit maker uses satire to get the message across to youths in the organization's latest TV advertising campaign, which began airing in the US earlier this week.
Sources: Ad Week and Star Pulse News Blog via Google Alert.
Legacy's Loose Cannon
May 14, 2007
By
Eleftheria Parpis
for AdWeek
|
NEW YORK MTV's Nick Cannon is hit with some startling questions in a new "Truth" anti-smoking spot breaking today from Arnold, Boston, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Miami. Derrick Beckles, the campaign's roving reporter, asks Cannon if he has self-esteem problems, surrounds himself with 40 oz. bottles of malt liquor and has someone read him his scripts. Cannon is understandably confused, ultimately responding, "Who reads it to me? I read it myself." Beckles then asks him to prove he can read—and hands him a document that explains the odd line of questioning. According to the document, in the 1980s "tobacco companies labeled African-Americans as less-educated [consumers who] prefer malt-liquor and have problems with their own self-esteem." Beckles notes that those assessments came from actual tobacco marketing documents. "Pretty sad," says Cannon. Indeed. And the long-running American Legacy campaign still gives teens some weighty points to ponder. But will they believe such practices still exist—or brush them aside as ancient history?
This is interesting. The more I keep reading about teens today (Generation Y), the more I find that they don't respond to celebrity endorsers. Hopefully they'll have success with it anyway.
I just read a journal that says that the "truth" ads are poor at converting smokers. There's a summary on my blog, I think you'd find it an interesting read.
Posted by: Dave Fallarme | May 19, 2007 at 02:43 PM