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Grandparents Decry Teen Vaping in Covid Times as 'Just Whack'
McCann Health walks the teenage talk
“This one goes out to my granddaughter, Lexi and her fierce squad.
What’s fire girls?
Look, I hate to get you salty, but vaping isn’t chill—it’s lame.
And vaping during Covid is just plain headass.
Did you know that vaping increases your chances of contracting Covid,
And it makes the virus harder to fight?
For realz!”
A concerned granny goes on like that for more than a minute in this amusing video from the nonprofit Evelyn Lilly Lutz Foundation, using Gen Z slang to make a serious point:
Young people who vape are more likely to contract and spread Covid-19 than the who abstain from vaping. That makes them a more potent threat to seniors, who account for over 80 percent of coronavirus deaths.
Take it from Nana:
“I’ve heard some of you say,
‘This s#!t only affects old people.’
ONLY OLD PEOPLE?!
Let me tell you, my bucket list is LOOONG!
And I’ll be damned if I let some basic b!tc#es ruin my time to flex.
I’m deadass on that.”
It’s a one-joke play that scores across a pair of videos…
S’up, Gramps?
“I get wanting to chill with ya bruhs.
Kicking back spillin’ the tea.
That totally slaps.
But these are not normal times. No, cap.
I’ll keep it 100 with you, this virus has me shook
And I’m not being extra.
Now is the perf time to ditch the vape.
You’ll be doing yourself, not to mention me and the boys, a huge solid.”
“The idea stems from the insight that young people are among the primary spreaders of Covid-19 and seniors are the main victims,” says Dov Zmood, executive creative director at McCann Global Health, which developed the campaign. “There’s an empathy and relatability gap between these two audiences—but an obvious and deep connection, too. The relationship between grandparent and grandchild is a sacred one, so who better to deliver a meaningful anti-vaping message than grandparents?”
“We used a highly relatable medium during Covid: video messaging,” to keep things real, Zmood says. “The environments shown are their real homes. The clothes they’re wearing are their clothes. The footage was captured on smartphones, further adding to the authenticity.”
Director Nathan Crooker urged actors Karen Teliha and Donald Wayne to simply be themselves, “and that’s exactly what you see,” Zmood says. “Karen and Wayne brought their own unique style and energy to the scripts. They connected with the spirit of the message and could mostly intuit the meaning of words outside their own lexicon. They are impassioned and believable, which makes for memorable, shareable content.”
The campaign also invites seniors to post anti-vaping messages using #DitchTheVapeNow. (Presumably, those will be jargon free. But who knows—right, bruh?)
CREDITS
McCann Global Health
Briana Ferrigno, President, McCann Global Health
Dov Zmood, Executive Creative Director
Juan Ferrer, Group Art Supervisor
Brigid Duffy, Group Copy Supervisor
Emily Carter, Account Supervisor
Angela Guglielmo, Senior Project Manager
James Etheridge, Strategy Director
Elyse Winer, Strategy Junior Associate
Production
Jason Souter, SVP, Director of Integrated Production
Terry Marcello, VP Director Talent Payment, Business Affairs
Phyllis Greenwald, Business Manager, Business Affairs
Media Engagement
Jeffrey Erb, President, McCann Health Engagement
Lee Daniels, VP, Resonance, McCann Health Engagement
Jeanne Jennings, VP, Director Media Planning, McCann Health Engagement
Client:
Suzanne Graves, President, Lutz Foundation
