Shapeshifter Campaign

Tobacco Stops With Me (a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust) is a public health intervention that provides efficient, emotional and highly recognizable tobacco prevention messages for Oklahomans to rally around.

Tobacco companies spend an estimated $150 million each year marketing their deadly products in Oklahoma and use a variety of half-truths and tricks to mislead consumers. These dishonest, manipulative actions result in over half a million new smokers and thousands of Oklahoma deaths yearly. Big Tobacco will do whatever it takes to addict more customers and make a profit, and no one is off limits. To educate Oklahomans about these harsh realities and create advocates against the tobacco industry, a statewide campaign, titled “Shapeshifter” was created.

This campaign gives a unique and jarring perspective on the many lies and tricks the tobacco industry uses to hook Oklahomans into a lifetime of addiction. By utilizing illustrative yet blunt storytelling, campaign materials share the importance of these grave issues. Messages creatively illustrate Big Tobacco as a shapeshifting character who spins the same lies, tactics, strategies and words that the industry uses to addict real customers everyday: teens, Black Americans, low-income communities, women and more.

Campaign messages across tactics educate Oklahomans on tobacco industry manipulations, focused on a particular form of manipulation and its corresponding target audience. For example, advertisements brought attention to sleek product design and fun flavors to addict youth; menthols and harsh marketing to target Black Americans; hot deals and cheap products to addict low-income Oklahomans; empty promises and fake feminism to target women and girls; “cool” looks and conversation to attract social smokers; convenience and ease to hook alternative nicotine users.

These disturbing manipulations take place even in unremarkable circumstances, bringing campaign audiences to the realization that Big Tobacco’s deadly work can infiltrate and addict in inconspicuous ways. Design elements carry bold themes, drawing from television assets and leaving a red thread throughout all campaign assets that trigger brand recall in the consumer’s mind, connecting messages across multiple tactics and flights.