truth. “Welcome to Crazyworld”
truth is the history-making brand that CP+B created for the American Legacy Foundation with help of teens to combat the decades of lies perpetrated by Big Tobacco. The initiative began in Florida with the first-ever legal settlements against the makers of tobacco products, and then grew up to be a national awareness campaign. But much more than that, the truth brand became a teen “badge of cool” for NOT smoking. Which changed literally everything. Like reducing teen smoking by a very healthy 74%.
While the truth brand remained a constant, the campaigns changed to keep the thinking fresh. “Welcome to Crazyworld.”
Their brand is lies. Our brand is truth.
For decades, nothing seemed to work to slow the rise of teen smoking. That is, until it was revealed that Big Tobacco had been lying about the health risks, the next generation of consumers they were targeting after killing the last. Lying about everything. Teens were the easy marks for their con. And, if there’s one thing that teens won’t tolerate—it’s being played. By digging through a trove of corporate communications, we were able to expose everything. And the message resonated.
Connect truth
While “Welcome to Crazyworld” exposed the insanity of what tobacco executives were doing with their lies, the next campaign dubbed “Connect truth” sought to help teens connect the dots about just how insidious Big Tobacco really is.