Scene 6: The Ad
Enter J.D. & May
J.D.: (pacing) We must get our share of the youth market.(xl)
May: Yes, sir.
J.D.: We need new brands designed to be particularly attractive to the young smoker.(xli)
Here's what I'm thinkin': we can get into classrooms if we run "anti-smoking campaigns" (finger quotes) - we send 'em free posters, book covers, all that. But the main idea of them will be that smoking is an adult thing to do – basic reverse psychology – if you tell a teen they're too young to do anything – of course they want to do it. Think of how you could sell that to the media…
J.D.: We don't advertise to children … First of all, we don't want young people to smoke. And we're running ads aimed specifically at young people advising them that we think smoking is strictly for adults …(xlii)
May: It's not children we're targeting it's…
May: That's it, J.D. We'll use pictures of what's cool and tweak 'em, like a kid on a skateboard – but the skateboard looks just like a match. Just think a skateboard is just the right… (the words "the right" are spoken simultaneously by J.D. and May)
J.D.: The right image to capture the youth market's fancy...a perfect symbol of independence and individualistic rebellion.(xliv)
May: We'll put clouds in the background that will look like billowing smoke. We'll use the same lettering that is on the package of "Choice" .
J.D.: I wonder whether comic strip type copy might …(xlv)
May: Maybe, but remember how we got burned in the courts on that last campaign? You know, the one that featured the cartoon desert animal. We have to be careful. Each year over 100,000 American kids go to hospitals for smoking related diseases. The Feds are all over us. You know, the problem is…
May: I'll tell you how…
J.D.: You do it with the great open spaces…the mountains, the open places, the lakes coming up to the shore…with healthy young people… with athletes…(xlvii)
May: Yeah, athletes. That reminds me of that girl Hope. We should model the kid on the skateboard after Hope. She's cool and we show her riding the match, head in the smoke – kids see this and want, subconsciously of course, to be like her. Meanwhile we can crow about the positive role model we're creating. Heh?
J.D.: (pulls up report on his palm pilot and reads, slowly enough for us all to really hear this distinctly) Serious efforts to learn to smoke occur between ages 12 and 13 but however intriguing smoking was [then] by the age of 16 or 17 many regretted their use of cigarettes for health reasons and because they feel unable to stop smoking when they want to. By the age of 16, peer pressure to initiate others to smoking is gone.(xlviii)
