CVS Hopes a Giant Cigarette Will Help People Quit Smoking

CVS Health Has Launched an Integrated, Multimedia Campaign to Let the World Know It's Quit Selling Cigarettes

Published On
Sep 03, 2014
Bryant Park Cigarette

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To call attention to its decision to stop selling tobacco products, CVS Pharmacies -- part of the newly rechristened CVS Health corporation -- has launched an integrated experiential, digital, print, out-of-home and broadcast campaign. The experiential portion involves a giant cigarette butt stubbed out in a giant red ashtray, strategically positioned today in New York City's Bryant Park as a media stunt. The ashtray and the cigarette, both labeled "Cigarettes Out. Health In," bring to mind the much-larger-than-life cigarette-butt sculptures of pop-art icon Claes Oldenburg.

The broadcast campaign kicks off with two spots: "We Wish" and "Deep Breath," both of which feature scenes of happy, healthy people enjoying life, and a folksy announcer who explains why CVS decided to quit selling cigarettes. The spots also plug a new smoking-cessation program and introduce a new tagline, "Health is everything."