Brazilian anti-smoking campaigns are not effective. Despite the use of shocking images on cigarette boxes, Brazilian smokers are smoking even more each year. And an anti-smoking campaign was just what the A.C.Camargo Cancer Centre, a private hospital in São Paulo, wanted. As a Brazilian pioneer in cancer treatment, the hospital needed a message that showed how harmful cigarettes can be, in a direct way. A surprising yet powerful message that both smokers and non-smokers would listen to.

Our idea was to surprise the audience of the São Paulo University (USP) choir on concert day by replacing the choir with laryngectomized patients. Instead of watching one of Brazil’s most famous choirs, the audience was impacted by 12 cigarette victims, without vocal chords and singing through laryngeal prostheses. At the end of the presentation, the patients raised a sign with the words: “Listen to this choir’s voice. Don’t smoke”.

The idea had a great impact on the watching public. But it went way beyond that. The video recording was spread by hundreds of national and international publications. It stole the show across internet, radio stations, newspapers and magazines. The stunt was so successful the choir now receives invitations to sing across Brazil. With a three-thousand-dollar investment, we reached the world. What started with a simple presentation in an auditorium became a social media hit and impacted enough people to fill up more than 6 thousand auditoriums.

We transformed a presentation of one of the most important choirs in town into a new media to alert people to the dangers of cigarettes. We captured attention and touched the watching audience. But that wasn’t all: the online video got spread across the whole country and around the world, positioning the brand not only as an anti-smoking spokesperson but also as a pioneer in the field.

Initially, the choir’s audience was directly impacted. But the real impact came with the video, through hundreds of articles: local and worldwide. Even without vocal cords, the message reached the ears of thousands of people. It spread across internet, radios, newspapers and magazines. The choir was so successful it received invitations to make presentations even after the campaign. With a US$ 3,000,00 investment, we’ve reached an audience 6,000 times bigger than the presentation’s original audience. It helped A.C.Camargo Cancer Center become the Top of Mind cancer treatment hospital in Brazil, and hopefully made some people rethink their smoking habits.