We love creative minds. We like when people are inspired. But we were baffled by the last Nonsmokers’ Rights organization campaign created by French ad agency BDDP&Fils. We all know how hard it is to quit smoking, and how harmful can be the addiction (about 30% of all cancer deaths are directly related to habitual smoking). But comparing smoking to performing oral sex is unexpected and most of all, illustrated in a very inappropriate way.

As you can see on the picture above, a teenager (two boys and a girl) is kneeling down in front of a clothed man, holding in their mouth a cigarette close to the man’s crotch. His hand is pushing on the teenager’s head to encourage the fellatio smoking… The ad seems to be more about sexual submission and forced sex act than an instructive way to explain youngsters how addictive can be smoking… The tag line drives the point home: “Smoking is being tobacco’s slave” (‘Fumer c’est être l’esclave du tabac’).

If  BDDP&Fils and the Nonsmokers’ Rights organization wanted to get attention, they succeeded. If they really wanted to send a message to young smokers, they hardly reached their goal. At least among the ones we talked to, they all got the sexual thing but didn’t understand the analogy between sex and tobacco. Is it encouraging oral sex instead of smoking? Is it about enjoying sexual intercourse with either a (young) man or a (young) woman? Should fellatio be considered as a submission?

If an ad needs an explanation, then it means it clearly missed its point…