MRS. GOOD RETCH;
THE STATE'S ANTITOBACCO ADS GET MORE NAUSEATINGAND POPULARBY THE WEEK By Amy Silverman
Copyright (c) 1997, New Times, Inc.

Many states around the country have launched antitobacco
campaigns, but none has captured the imaginationor turned
the stomachsof television and radio audiences like the
one sponsored by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Who could forget these great moments in antismoking
propaganda: A Dr. Frankensteintype sniffing the lungs of a
smoker?

An unsuspecting teenage girl at a movie sipping from her
date's cup, which is full of tobacco spittle?

A disgruntled dog peeing on the cigarette of his puffing
teen master?

Compare the techniques in this campaign with other
antismoking effortsincluding juvenile cartoons and
preachy "Just Say No" sermonsand the difference
immediately becomes clear.

Arizona's ads are gross.

Not just "I'm gonna show you my chewedup grilled cheese
sandwich" gross, or even "Here's a smoker's lung in a jar
of formaldehyde" gross, but really gross.

Consider the recent radio spot in which a kid describes
how smelly, yellow pus from the eye of a rotting bird
shoots into his mouth.

Tastes just like chewing tobacco. The twisted genius
behind these grossouts is not a Howard Stern, John Waters
or David Lynchbut rather one Amy Dominy, the seemingly
prim mother of two who's alternately referred to by
colleagues as "Mary Poppins" and "Pollyanna."

Dominy, 33, is a senior copywriter at Riester
Corporation, the Phoenix advertising agency that handles
the state's multimilliondollar antismoking campaign. The
campaign is funded by a 40cent tax on tobacco products
approved by Arizona voters in 1995.

The state's antismoking campaign includes a handful of
ethereal, tearjerking radio and television spots aimed at
pregnant women (also penned by Dominy), but most attention
has gone to the series targeted at adolescents, ages 10 to
16.

Riester Corporation's creative director, Dave Robb, says
no studies have been conducted yet to determine the impact
of the ad campaign. In fact, experts say, it's all but
impossible to quantify the impact, since there are so many
variables that could potentially keep kids from smoking.

Meanwhile, as the Nineties wane, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention reports smoking among teenagers
continues to increasedespite the efforts of government
antismoking campaigns. Florida, which also has an
antismoking campaign, has delved into the gross, with ads
titled "Cow Farts" and "Toilet," but none comes close to
being as gross and as hip and as popular as Arizona's.

Kristen McCall, health communications specialist for the
CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, says she's been bombarded with
requests for Arizona's ads since a licensing agreement made
them available late last year to other states and nonprofit
groups.

When they sat down in 1995 to create a proposal for the
antismoking campaign, Riester's Robb, Dominy and art
director Shawn Eichenauer knew their goal: not to convince
kids that smoking is uncool, but that it's cool not to
smoke.

Figuring out how to do that, however, was quite a
challenge.

Dominy scribbled what was to become the campaign's
famous tag line"Tobacco. Tumor causing, teeth staining,
smelly, puking habit"on a paper napkin during an
impromptu brainstorming session. The element of "grossness"
was a part of the campaign from the very beginning, with
"Movie Snacks" and "Frankenstein," and the ads' intensity
increased as Riester Corporation saw kids' reactions during
focusgroup testing. "We kind of walked before we ran into
this area," says creative director Robb.

The other challenge facing Riester is keeping its
campaign hip. If adults think the ads are cool, kids won't.
Thus, teachers are admonished for wearing tee shirts with
the campaign's slogan.

Unlike her colleagues, Dominy apparently is so unhip she
doesn't wear black or a visible toe ring. She's got bobbed
hair and round glasses, jeans and a gray tee. A cat she had
as a child that hid birds under her bed provided the
creative spark for "Pus," the radio spot about the rotting
bird.

"It's a cold, dark place in Amy's brain," Robb says,
giggling, referring to the inspiration for the ad. "She
never ceases to scare me."

Dominy's colleagues roar at the recollection of their
Mary Poppins reading the ad's script for Department of
Health Services director Dr. Jack Dillenberg. They say
Dillenberg loved it. DHS officials refused to comment.

Riester's creative team says it's only been turned down
by DHS once, on the basis of grossness. That concerned a
poster that offered a list of synonyms for words like
"farting" and "vomiting," eventually equating those terms
with cigarette smoke and chewing tobacco.

The trend toward gross is a lastditch effort. The
nation's bestknown antidrug campaign was a flop; today,
the phrase "Just Say No" is equated with the failed war
on drugs. The Partnership for a DrugFree America has
come out with some innovative, shocking ads decrying heroin
use, but for the most part, antidrugparticularly,
antitobaccoadvertising has been far less sophisticated
than the sales techniques used by the tobacco companies
themselves.

For example, Scholastic Magazine and the American Lung
Association have released a book called The Berenstain Bear
Scouts and the Sinister Smoke Ring, about the dangers of
the "Moose Tobacco Company" and its false advertising.

The American Medical Association has a cartoon character
called "The Extinguisher," who snatches kids from the jaws
of the tobacco industry.

Compare that with "Smoked Meat," one of Riester
Corporation's spots, in which a cannibal screws up his nose
at a steaming stew, complaining, "I said I wanted smoked
tourist, not a tourist who smoked!" "Pus" the radio spot is
so popular, Riester has heard from kids who want to know
when the television version will appear. (No such plans,
kids.) Robb says he knows a 3yearold who can recite the
script verbatim.

An extremely unscientific New Times study reveals that
not every kid is impressed. Katie Daryl Sotak, 17, a senior
at Xavier College Preparatory in Phoenix, says she's
followed the campaign, and while the ads are
attentiongrabbing, she doesn't necessarily equate them
with the antismoking message.

Sotak and other kids say the ads may be popular, but
they don't appear to be diminishing the popularity of
smoking.

And not every kid likes to be grossed out. For Sotak,
"Pus" was definitely over the top. "I thought that was
rather vulgar," she says.

That leads to a question: Just how gross is too gross?

"Human feces. We stay away from human feces," Dominy
says. But she adds thoughtfully, "We haven't really
explored pus and body pus and scabs." Riester Corporation
recently completed filming for the next television spot,
which is due to air in the next couple of weeks.

The ad execs wouldn't say much, beyond that the ad is
titled "Maggot."

"But it's gross!" Dominy promises, in a stage whisper.