CVS Makes a Wish (That It Can Help Smokers 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

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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 digital, print, experiential, out-of-home and broadcast campaign, starting with two spots. "We Wish" and "Deep Breath" and both 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."

The experiential portion of the campaign 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.