STEPP: "Dragons" and "Ravens" Via Cactus Advertising

We caught one of these spots last night and it definitely made us stop and perk up. The new campaign, created by Denver-based advertising agency Cactus, is for the State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership (STEPP), encouraging parents to stop exposing their little ones to secondhand smoke.

“We worked with the production company BUCK to bring the spots to life through 3D animation,” said Norm Shearer, Cactus creative director and partner. “We loved their decidedly dark interpretation of our dragons and ravens concept to symbolize the startling dangers of secondhand smoke. Their work very much produced the effect we were looking to achieve.”

Our only nit? The voice-over talent is soft and too “nice,” taking the dark edge off the spots and making us take the message less seriously. Need to do a director’s cut with a gravely man’s voice to see the difference it would make.

Credits:
Agency: Cactus
Strategic Director: Joe Conrad
Creative Director: Norm Shearer
Account Director: Amy Taylor
Associate Creative Director/Art Director: Jeff Strahl
Associate Creative Director/ Copywriter: Brian Watson
Copywriter: Jim Morrissey