Creative Showcase

CLIENT Vermont Department of Health

AGENCY Kelliher Samets Volk, Burlington, VT

The Tobacco Control team at the Vermont Health Department wanted a low-cost way to target low-income young adults and persuade them to quit their smokes. (This demographic tends to consume cigarettes at a rate 30% higher than other adults.)

Bill Drew, creative director for local agency Kelliher Sametz Volk, decided on the Great Fake Out: package playing cards, imprinted with anti-smoking messages, to look like familiar tobacco brands. These and bar coasters, disguised as currency, urge smokers to spend their pocket money better — starting with a toll-free call to the Vermont Quit Line. Distribution was to bars and service stations.