Hasta La Creative!

Utah’s Department of Health has a new anti-smoking campaign courtesy of Crowell Advertising that targets boys 12 and under. To appeal to these pre-teens, Crowell created a superhero called Smokerman. A pack-a-day kinda guy, Smokerman is “the one who can’t.” In the five low-budget but fairly amusing spots, Smokerman fails to save the world again and again due to his unfortunate habit. The press release says the goal is to appeal to kids without spouting statistics, but a couple of them slip in there. Did you know every cigarette takes 11 minutes off your life? How do they even come up with numbers like that? Also, it should be noted that, for a glorified Ken doll, Smokerman is surprisingly hot. Way hotter than Powerman, with his weird logo and tacky neon-green outfit, or Speedyman, with his atrocious ’80s hair and freaky goggles. With a fine ‘stache like that, you just know Smokerman kicks ass. I hope they start selling the dolls. I want one to sit on my desk and stare blankly at me each time I go to chop another 11 minutes off my life.

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers