Ads that Purposely Distract

Excerpts from a press release by the Irish healthcare agency HSE:

In Ireland, smoking is the leading cause of avoidable death. The QUIT campaign encourages smokers to quit and signposts to evidence-based HSE stop smoking services.

The HSE QUIT campaign is partnering with RTÉ to sponsor the Irish men’s soccer team’s hopeful journey to the UEFA European Championships in summer 2024.

The Irish team are in group B and need to overcome some difficult opponents like World Cup runners-up France, previous European winners Greece and the high flying Dutch. The matches will draw a big audience, including the key target audience for QUIT - smokers aged between 25 and 45.

Ad breaks during live sports are often unconscious triggers for people to smoke. We want to disrupt this behaviour and find a way to keep the viewer engaged and distracted from smoking.

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.

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

Each break sting will have a different task for the audience to do – 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.

A sample of the stings can be watched here.