Truth Initiative is the largest nonprofit public health organization in the United States, aiming to create a world and culture without smoking and vaping. But the truth is… quitting nic is no walk in the park. Insecurity, nervousness, and vulnerability can blow away determination like smoke in the wind.
We teamed up with our friends at Truth Initiative to create a campaign that helps support young people in ditching the addictive habit of nicotine without preaching or nagging. We created a series of 10 typo-based stories that capture the emotional burden of quitting. The main idea was a positive push toward quitting and changing habits for good. Scroll down to have a look at all four themes!
Dropping nicotine is mostly an overwhelming and scary experience – especially when quitting cold turkey. We took a more honest approach and compared quitting to the training process – you keep practicing it! Quitting is a muscle where it's okay to push your limits and start all over again.
Staying quit is the hardest part for many, and there are countless myths about quitting! The Myth series revealed actual struggles around dropping the vape and cigs. In the quit phase, we moved youngsters from a self-doubting mindset about quitting towards a more supportive one. The main message here – Truth Initiative is always available to anyone struggling with the promises they've made to themselves.
For most people, it takes 3 to 30 attempts to quit nicotine. Quitting isn’t one and done, and the most important thing is to build a habit of giving up smoking rather than giving up on yourself. We drew an optimistic picture, even if it takes multiple attempts to quit. Trying again and again isn't a failure – it's all progress.
Smoking may not be about smoking at all! Anxiety or the need for socialization are often the real causes for reaching for a vape or another cig. Whatever the truth is, Truth Initiative has several partners providing extra tools and help for people wanting to drop that smoking habit. Unlike nicotine, a little help never killed no one!
That’s Gen Z we are talking to here... Obvi, the visual approach had to grab attention. The design choice here is minimalistic yet playful, making sure it stands out and delivers maximum emotional impact on the young smokers. We used a cool color palette with Truth’s signature orange as the accent color, and a holographic motif that ties together all 10 videos of the campaign.
The visual style combined clear, easy-to-read fonts with sketch-like details that added vibrancy and emotion to the written text. In the animation, we used a kinetic approach and broke the message into phrases and keywords, rhythmically driving the story forward.
After Effects typography animation is blended with frame-by-frame assets here, creating a playful and positive touch to the visuals. By combining these techniques, we added a lightness and ease to an overwhelming topic.
Creative Director
Klinta Verbele
Executive producers
Tanya Savranenko
Elina Alaine
Animatic
Vadim Luks
Art Director
Gints Gutmanis
Rodrigo Stipkovic
Illustrations
Veronika Horban
Animation lead
Vadim Luks
Rita Steimane
rita@panicstudio.tv
Lou Bones
lou@panicstudio.tv
hello@panicstudio.tv
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