Exposing the tobacco industry’s environmental impact on the planet

Background

Creating an online campaign to expose how the tobacco industry is poisoning the environment and impacting our health.

Our brief from the World Health Organization was to increase public awareness about the environmental impact of the tobacco industry on our planet.

Most people are aware that smoking affects their personal health and increases their risk of disease. But many people are still unaware of how the tobacco industry as a whole is impacting the planet – and therefore, affecting everyone’s health regardless of whether or not they are smokers.

Our goal was to create an online campaign based on research provided by WHO that exposed the industry’s ‘greenwashing’ and empty claims about its sustainability.

Challenge

Creating conversation around climate action and our health.

Environmental impact is by no means a new conversation, it’s on every front page and corner of the internet. Our challenge was to stand out above the tobacco industry’s ‘greenwashing’ and deliver a successful awareness campaign in the run up to World No Tobacco Day 2022. The Rooftop team knew that a fresh visual style and strong key messaging were needed to capture the target audience’s attention and spark healthy conversations.

Solution

Creating content to expose tobacco’s unsustainability.

Our creative design team came up with the idea to use tobacco products themselves to speak out against the impact of the industry on the planet and our global health. So they used cigarette boxes, cigarettes, vapes, vape juice and other tobacco paraphernalia to build the image of a skull and crossbones on our studio floor. The skull and crossbones is a universal symbol for ‘warning’ and ‘danger’.

This image was then photographed and our design team digitally imposed it onto an environmental background that showed the physical devastation of the tobacco industry on the environment. This was a jarring, visually striking image that stood out from the majority of other online environmental campaign content. The imagery was supported by key messaging which was a simple, bold, thought-provoking statement: #TobaccoExposed.

This hashtag could be used across all assets. It was shared together with key facts and figures on how the unsustainable tobacco industry is harming the planet, and impacting the health of everyone and everything on Earth. To bring the messaging to life, we developed a visual identity based on the “skull” key visual.

The campaign was rolled out on social media using a mix of video and static content. To ensure its success, our digital marketing team used organic, paid and influencer strategies for dissemination.

The Result

The impact of #TobaccoExposed.

The result was a campaign that reached millions online and attracted global press attention due to its bold stance against the tobacco industry’s unsustainability. Our client was very impressed with the impact of the project which helped support their goal of providing “Health for all”. The campaign took this a further step forward by inspiring millions to rethink their behaviour based on their knowledge of the impact of tobacco on the environment as well as on people’s health.