The Hawaiʻi Tobacco Quitline
Campaign: “End Their Fear”
Agency: Rescue
For native Hawaiians, the stress of protecting their culture and surviving on recently colonized land is a daily struggle. Cigarette smoking has become a common coping mechanism.
The Hawaiʻi Tobacco Quitline came to Rescue in search of an emotionally charged campaign that would speak directly to adult caretakers of young children. Our response? “End Their Fear,” a campaign I ideated based on my own experience as a child with beloved family members who smoked. End Their Fear reminds adults of the unnecessary worry their smoking can cause kids.
To make the biggest impact, we decided to focus on a traditional parent-child relationship in our video. Rather than shame parents, I wanted to communicate how much smoking can scare their children. Hopefully, that realization would drive parents to break their habit with the quitline’s help.
:30 Flagship Video
In schools, children are taught that smoking can cause long-term physical damage and death. When they come home and see the adults they love smoking, it triggers an intense fear. My campaign was built around leaning into this fear and pushing parents to consider how that stress harms their children.
social Theme: “They worry”
social theme: “warning label”
Families can be composed of more than just a parent and child, so we needed a social theme that reflected that. Here, I wanted to mimic the thoughts children have when they see a loved adult smoking. The goal was to subtly ask, “If you won’t quit smoking for you, would you consider quitting for them?”
