Smoking causes cancer, smoking causes heart attacks, smoking can make you sterile... Smoking kills. Everyone knows that. These messages have been present for 15 years on all French cigarette packs with the same visuals. Visuals that unfortunately, over time, have less and less impact.

But there is something that smokers do not know, and that is that smoking also kills the 1,300,000 children who are exploited in tobacco fields. These children are out of school and for the most part, suffering from green tobacco disease, since they absorb the equivalent of 50 cigarettes through skin in contact with tobacco leaves. A toxic exposure which consumes them little by little.

To denounce this practice of the tobacco industry and raise awareness, we hacked the 3,000,000,000 packs of cigarettes sold in France each year to create 3,000,000,000 screens, thanks to augmented reality and the “#Derrièrelepaquet” (“#Behindthepack”) Snapchat filter.

That's 3,000,000,000 cigarette packs transformed into a real media.

The messages and visuals of cigarette packets are diverted and give way to the testimonies of children who are exploited, out of school, or sick, because of the tobacco industry. Testimonials with a strong prevention message: “Smoking kills children.”

Behind the 42 existing images on cigarette packets, there’s the story of exploited children.

The tobacco industry needs young people to continue to exist. Our main target is therefore the younger generation. A generation that is less and less impacted by traditional means of communication.

The phone and Snapchat are central elements of their daily lives. Snapchat is their primary means of communication and sharing filters can quickly go viral.

So we created an immersive brand experience using a channel that speaks to them all. To find out our message, they just have to use their phone and the cigarette packets in their bags. Everything is at hand and participatory so that they carry the message themselves.

It is a new medium to raise awareness among the younger generation about this murderous business. Because behind the pack hides an even more cruel reality, the lives of other young people in danger.

This Snapchat filter was publicised for 2 weeks on the platform from February 21 to March 6, 2022. Messages led people straight to the filter proposals of a certain target of young people between 18 and 35 years old. In addition, a promo video on Snapchat brought more young people back to this filter thanks to swiping.

Teasing and announcement videos were broadcast on Instagram and Facebook to highlight this filter and bring young people onto Snapchat.

All these formats amount to a petition to stop this murderous industry that destroys the lives of exploited children.

In 10 days, the lens appears 3 million times on Snapchat and more than 1 million people used the lens.