SMOKING had long been a hallmark of teenage rebellion when “Truth,” a campaign from Legacy, introduced its first antismoking commercial in 2000. In the commercial, young people gather at the New York headquarters of the Philip Morris tobacco company and dump 1,200 body bags, representing the number of daily deaths attributed to smoking. The spot sought to shift a perception of cigarettes as a symbol of rebellion to one of the tobacco industry as the real enemy to rebel against.
The continuing “Truth” effort has been widely viewed as a success. A 2009 study in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, for example, found that from 2000 through 2004, the effort was directly responsible for preventing 450,000 teenagers from starting to smoke.
Now Legacy is about to introduce a new effort on behalf of the “Truth” campaign, “Finish It,” which takes a decidedly less rebellious tone.
A new commercial opens with “Revolusion,” a song by the Swedish performer Elliphant, and white text against an orange background. “In 2000, 23 percent of teens smoked,” it reads. “Today, only 9 percent of teens smoke. That’s less than the number of VHS tapes sold in 2013. It’s less than the number of landlines still in use. But the fight isn’t over.”
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