Young Successful Entrepreneur

So I don’t smoke; never have and never will. However, watching these lame “Truth” commercials make me just want to grab a cigarette and puff a few smokes in their face just so they know how ineffective and retarded these “Sunny Side of Truth” commercials are.

Lets analyze this 30 second commercial that constantly plays on TV airwaves.

Who is their target audience?

The target audience for these commercials is the Millennial generation. This includes Gen Y and Z. I have seen them on TNT, TBS, and local channels all the time. The lead actors are always people in our generation so it is very impactful and relevant to us.

What is the point they are trying to get across?

The commercial opens like every other “Truth” commercial where two Gen Y’ers stand outside a major tobacco company. This is effective because it calls to the heart of what Gen Y is all about - sticking it to the man. Big Tobacco is “the man,” and we are standing outside their giant building in defiance. “5 million people died from their products last year.” This immediately grabs my attention because it is so concrete. 5 million people is a freakin lot of people! So far so good; the first 5 seconds does grab my attention.

What is the unique way in which they grab and keep our attention?

So the “brilliant” way they thought of gaining and keeping our attention is to do a silly little dance and jig about “making a typo.” How effective is this, really? What they are trying to do is show how ridiculous it is to think that 5 million deaths a year could be a typo. I’m not sure if Big Tobacco said that the number was a typo, but if they did, then this commercial is trying to counter their statement.

The feel of this commercial reminds me of reality TV. There are so many reality shows about singing and dancing, that I believe the directors of the commercial are trying to use this momentum to catch our attention. Also, the people in the crowd are shown standing and watching this dance. It makes it seem like they are performing it live, which is another play on reality TV.

I completely understand what they are trying to do, but I DO NOT feel that it is effective. It didn’t drive me to google their movement nor was there a website url at the end that told me where to go to check them out online. Actually now to think about it, let me go online and google them.

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There website is www.thetruth.com. I actually take back my first statement about being targeted to the Gen Y. After spending a few minutes browsing the site, absolutely everything is very cartoony and seems to be targeted towards the pre-teens and very young teenagers.

If this is the case, then no wonder these commercials are not effective on my. Actually, they’re effect on me is the opposite of what they’re trying to do because if makes me want to smoke. The next steps are for me to talk to some very young teenagers who have seen this commercial. Is it effective on them? Do they understand the message? If they smoke right now, does it encourage them to stop smoking?

Here is a great blog post by David about Anti-Smoking Ads

Would love to hear from you and learn your viewpoints on this commercial.