Publicis Dublin and HSE Quit Highlight How Ad Breaks Can Be a Battle for Smokers Who Are Trying to Quit

Publicis Dublin and QUIT from the HSE use the Sponsorship of the Euro Qualifiers for the Irish Men’s soccer team to highlight how ad breaks can be a battle for smokers who are trying to quit. 

The sponsorship includes 10” and 7” stings that top and tail each ad break on RTÉ before, during and after each match.

Ad breaks during live sports are often unconscious triggers for people to smoke. Evidence based research shows that distraction is an effective tool to help those who want to quit smoking. 

The challenge was to take each intro and outro bumper and effectively use them to occupy the entire ad break for smokers.

The stings are designed to provoke a pause, keeping viewers in their seats or suggesting something else that they can do during the ad break. This gives smokers a chance to win, no matter how the Irish team is doing. 

The creative uses an arresting ‘flash card’ style, to pique interest before posing an intriguing challenge or question. Each break sting has a different task for the audience – from peeling an orange, to learning how to juggle, emptying the dishwasher or solving an anagram. The closing break sting includes a message about the support QUIT.ie can offer smokers. 

Aghna Harte, HSE Quit, said: “By giving the audience a task at the start of each break we hope to encourage a ‘don’t break’ instead of a ‘smoke break’, giving current quitters support to tackle smoking cravings but also inspiring future quitters to take back control with the support of the HSE QUIT service, one craving at a time.”

Ronan Nulty, Publicis, said: “Watching the Republic of Ireland is nerve-wracking enough you’d forgive anyone for wanting to take a break. With this short series we're providing random and genuine distractions, which any person trying to quit could use anytime.”

David Carter, Publicis, said: “Sponsorship of the Euro Qualifiers is the perfect place to support our audience in their Quit attempts at a time they may be naturally inclined to smoke. This is a novel way to cut through and stand out to keep people’s minds off their cravings."

The stings were produced fully in-house by Publicis Dublin, with sound from Folding Waves. 

The sponsorship will run for the rest of the qualifier games, with completely unique stings running each time.