Scared

Scared

31 October 2008 throughout November

The TV advert at the heart of this campaign shows a girl bravely dismissing a number of things that we might normally think of as scary: clowns, lightning and spiders. But she is terrified of her mother smoking. This point is emphasised in a campaign which also includes radio, press, outdoor and online adverts.

What the campaign is about

This campaign decided to look at smoking from a children's point of view. But the target of the advert is clearly smoking parents, who are being invited to swap places with their own kids. This campaign is an opportunity for those smokers to think about how their children might feel when they see them smoking. And it also suggests that there is something to be genuinely fearful of. Clowns may be a bit weird, but they're not very threatening. Lightning is unlikely to hit you and spiders in the UK are not dangerous. But smoking is.

We hope that parents who smoke and see these adverts will think about the fear of their children. But they might also think about what would happen if they did die, or suffer from serious disease, while their children are still growing up. And that should be a powerful reason for them to go smokefree.