BBDO Dublin’s Positive Quit Smoking Ad for the HSE Picked up to Air in New York

The HSE’s ‘I Will Survive; Quit Smoking Campaign has been picked up by the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Tobacco Control.

I Will Survive” is airing in all of the media markets of New York State, including New York City. The Quit Smoking TV ad was created in January 2017 by Dublin Advertising Agency, BBDO Dublin and produced by 2AM films in the UK.

The premise of the ad is for the viewer to empower themselves to break the relationship with smoking with the ultimate goal of choosing of life over dying.

Breaking the mould from traditional public anti-smoking service advertising, the HSE’s QUIT ad focuses on an empowering pro-quitting strategy pivoting on the fact that for the first time, Ireland now has more quitters than smokers. 

I Will Survive

Featuring a cast of real Irish people who have quit smoking, the ad is a journey through the daily lives of quitters across Ireland, as they lip sync Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive”. 

At first, I was afraid, I was petrified
Kept thinking, I could never live without you by my side
But then I spent so many nights thinking, how you did me wrong
And I grew strong and I learned how to get along…  

The song is a celebration of being free from an unhealthy relationship. There’s a pain in parting, but everything thereafter promises a better world, an affirmation of life, a chance to avoid the fate of 1 in 2 who die from a smoking-related disease, and, actually, survive. When you put the lyrics to this disco classic under the spotlight, it couldn’t make more sense, from the perspective of a quitter. 

There’s a heartfelt reality at the centre of our message. And in the middle of the ad, an actor voices the line: “Did you think I’d lay down and die?” The reason? We need people to remember that this is not just a joyful celebration of quitting. There are real, agonising consequences that people are choosing to avoid when they quit.