Nicotine = Brain Poison

In the late 2010s, vaping surged among youth in California, up 218% among middle schoolers and 135% among high schoolers in just two years. Despite growing concern, many parents still saw nicotine as merely addictive but not inherently harmful, often comparing it to caffeine. This misconception, fueled by decades of industry spin, led parents to rank vaping low on their list of urgent threats compared to issues like social media, bullying, or mental health crises. The California Tobacco Control Program (UNDO) needed to break through parental skepticism, reframing nicotine itself, not just the products delivering it, as a direct and lasting danger to teens’ developing brain.

We grounded the campaign in a stark new truth: Nicotine equals brain poison. Research revealed that nicotine alters adolescents’ brain cell activity, impacting memory, attention, and impulse control, while worsening anxiety, irritability, and learning difficulties. To make these hidden dangers visceral, we developed cinematic, emotionally charged storytelling that depicted the storms of adolescence and tied them to nicotine’s neurological harms.

The creative strategy was built around three prongs:

1. High-impact video to cut through apathy and spark family conversations.
2. Longer-form content and news integrations to deepen credibility and show vaping’s real-world consequences.
3. Mobilization tools such as toolkits, shareable content, and action buttons to help parents, schools, and communities turn awareness into advocacy.

Spanish- and Asian-language executions reflected the realities of bilingual households, ensuring the campaign resonated across California’s diverse communities.