That’s the challenge smokers in New York City gave us. After all the anti-smoking advertising they’d seen over the years, our “suffering” ad campaign was the first one that had finally hit home. We made them see that it wasn't about dying from smoking, it was about how much they were going to suffer before they died. They were convinced to quit. But how? How could New York City help them? Technology became our answer. We built the NYC HelpMeQuit app based on research that showed if you could distract yourself for even just a few seconds when a craving hit, there was good chance the craving would go away and they’d slowly get less intense over time. It’s a small part of a very difficult journey, but it’s a good example of the thinking we do that’s outside of the advertising box.
