Break the Cycle

Truth came to us with a brief that required walking a very specific line. The campaign needed to reach young people across a wide demographic and communicate the grip of nicotine addiction without resorting to fear tactics. The category had already seen its share of heavy-handed PSAs. Truth wanted something different: work that felt relatable, visually compelling, and honest about the cycle without being a downer. The team also had to deliver six spots across three shoot days, in New York, in the middle of a blizzard.

Rather than showing addiction as something dark or scary, the insight was to lean into the mundane inevitability of it. The characters aren’t suffering in some heightened, cinematic way. They’re just stuck, and that’s what makes it uncomfortable to watch. The levity lives in the world around them, bystander reactions and small visual absurdities that give audiences something to hold onto without undercutting the message.

The campaign was built around two concepts shot simultaneously across three days. “Deja You” showed characters trapped in repeating days, unable to break out. “Break the Cycle” showed people being slowly, unavoidably dragged across rooms toward nicotine. Martin and Justin split units and directed simultaneously, a system made possible by deep pre-production alignment that meant either director could execute without creative compromise. A stunt coordinator handled the dragging sequences, and the exterior drive-thru scene was shot in 15-degree weather, talent holding his breath between takes to avoid visible condensation.

Six spots in three days. The campaign avoided the trap of the scary PSA while still landing the message clearly. By showing addiction as slow and inevitable rather than dark or dramatic, the spots connected with a younger audience on their own terms, relatable, a little uncomfortable, and hard to look away from.