Flavored Tobacco Guerilla Marketing Ideas
Guerilla Marketing is about unconventional promotional tactics that are creative, high-‐energy and easy to understand. It’s all about grabbing your audience’s attention, and often taking your audience by surprise. Guerilla Marketing works well to raise awareness and help advance a social cause. It’s an easy-‐to-‐implement and inexpensive way to DELIVER your MESSAGE. Here are some Guerilla Marketing examples associated with flavored tobacco: • Create a makeshift candy-‐flavored tobacco stand for events, such as a “Toxic Candy Shop” or
“Toxic Café.” An option is to have a bake sale at the stand and include flavored tobacco messages on the items you sell.
• Make a candy-‐inspired float for your homecoming parade or other community parade.
Include flavored tobacco messaging as part of the decorations. • Have a candy-‐flavored tobacco mascot perform at a community event or school event, such
as football game. DIY mascot costumes or “protest puppets” are an option. Protest puppets have been used throughout history on political and social issues. Do an online image search or “protest puppets” for ideas. Here’s an example of how truth® used puppets: http://youtu.be/4NI9nXf7SmA.
IT’S A M.A.D. WORLD
Remember, building an effective advocacy communication campaign can be as simple as M. A. D. MESSAGE – What do you want people to know or understand about your SWAT campaign? AUDIENCE – Which specific people or group of people do you wish to reach with your SWAT Message? DELIVERY – What is the most impactful way to deliver your Message to your selected Audience? Sometimes how you deliver a Message is often just as important as what you say!
• Candy-‐inspired “prank” at school.
*Disclaimer: While you can do this and it can seem impromptu or guerilla, getting permission is always smart. Here are some examples of pranks:
o Block one main hallway with messages about flavored tobacco o Impromptu message or mock “emergency alert” on the PA system during class o Spray paint or chalk the student parking lot with flavored tobacco messages o “Vending Machine Takeover” using flavored tobacco messages
• Place wraparound with flavored tobacco messages on school newspaper.
• Decorate classrooms with overwhelming number of signs/images/information about flavored
tobacco. • Place makeshift “Toxic Candy” in an open area of your school, like a courtyard, or inside a
local youth center, such as a YMCA. The candy will have flavored tobacco messages on them. • Place flavored tobacco postcards or bookmarks in library books. • Computer Takeover: Change desktop backgrounds and screensavers to images with flavored
tobacco messaging at libraries or computer labs in your school or in the community. • Use the hashtag #ToxicCandy (or a different hashtag that coincides with your campaign or
your messaging) throughout your school, a high-‐trafficked location in your community, or at event like a fair. This should coincide with a Twitter campaign using the hashtag along with flavored tobacco facts. Tweets should direct to the SWAT website when appropriate.
• The Creeper Exhibit: Design and build life-‐sized monuments or portraits of creepy tobacco
executives and include tobacco industry quotes regarding flavored tobacco. Place them in a school courtyard or other heavily trafficked areas, or host an “art exhibit” displaying the monuments and/or portraits. Optional catchphrase: “ No wonder tobacco executives hide behind candy flavors.” (e.g. Similar to Florida truth’s ad that ran around 1999 and that states: “No wonder tobacco executives hide behind sexy models.”)
• Influential Executives of America Exhibit: Design and build life-‐sized monuments or portraits
of tobacco executives. Place them in a school courtyard or other heavily trafficked areas, or host an “art exhibit” displaying the monuments and/or portraits. Include messages about how the tobacco industry flavors their products and then markets those flavored products to influence youth to use tobacco and become addicted. The idea is to mockingly pay tribute to these “influential executives” while educating your audience about how youth are being target/influenced. You may want to include messages with proof that youth are successfully influenced (i.e. 9 out of 10 smokers start before age 18, about 3 out of 4 high school smokers will smoke in adulthood, etc.)
• During sporting events in the community or at school, such as at a game or pep rally, SWAT
members throw “Toxic Candy” (candy with flavored tobacco messaging) into the crowd. The “Toxic Candy” can be individual and contain customized wrappers, or the candy can be in bags that include tags with flavored tobacco messages.
• Target school bathrooms with signage, toilet covers or urinal cakes that inform students that
ammonia, a toxic substance used in cleaning products, is found in cigarillos and little cigars. Sample Message: “Ammonia works great to clean these toilets (or urinals). It’s also found in your candy-‐flavored cigarillo.”
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