Help was also received by:John Gaffney/Arnold MPG/Media Director A large part of our initial strategy was to make truthsm a youth brand by utilizing primarily teen programming. The media team then challenged itself to introduce truthsm to adults, but do so in a way that remained true to the brand. We wanted to reach a dual audience without sacrificing truth's edge, or alienating teens by speaking to their parents. In other words, we wanted to keep truth a teen-focused brand, but let adults know we were out there. Furthermore, we needed to achieve this goal in a relatively short time period and garner significant attention in the press as a result. Television's dynamic nature and ability to reach a large audience quickly readily leant themselves to our communication goals. Media decided to utilize April Fool's Day to barrage the general public with a television campaign that was sure to create a buzz. We ran an ad with a fictitious tobacco executive announcing a cigarette recall until a safer product could be developed. The spot was tagged with a teen voiceover revealing the April Fool's joke and truth's logo.

The media team purchased a blitz of high profile television environments airing within the twenty-four hour window of April Fool's Day. We selected popular news programs, sports championships, sitcoms, comedy sketch shows, and dramas to showcase the creative; Media purchased everything from Saturday Night Live and the X-Files, to MTV, CNN and College Basketball Championships. By utilizing both teen and adult programming for this campaign, we made adults part of the joke. As a result, teens saw that we were speaking to adults, while at the same time remaining loyal to truthsm as a teen brand.Truth'ssm stunt was a great success! The spot generated extraordinary attention from the press in the following days. CNN, NBC, Univision, Ad Age, and AdWeek were among the many whom picked up our story. Beyond the 115 million impressions from our TV buy, we garnered an additional 14.4 million impressions through media mentions in national and local television, radio, print, and online. In addition, CNN, Bloomberg radio, and Newsweek.com each interviewed the truthsm client regarding the spot. The stunt more than accomplished what it set out to do. The brand exploded onto the adult scene and teens applauded our effort. truthsm is the teen brand that provides America's youth with the true facts and information about the Tobacco Industry. This enables each teen to make an educated decision about smoking for him or herself. In fact, truthsm is actually more than a brand; it is a movement that empowers teens to stand up to Tobacco by refusing to be manipulated as a target of their deadly product.As such, truthsm does not have a tangible product to sell. Instead, the creative message is our product and media is the sole means of distribution. In order to most effectively connect with teens, or "sell" our product, both media and creative must be in perfect sync with truth'ssm creative messaging. In other words, if our creative must have a rebellious, non-corporate, inclusive, non-preachy, empowering feel, so must the media environments in which it runs. Media identified April Fools Day as the perfect platform to expand truth'ssm reach to a broader audience. We developed this concept and recommended truthsm utilize the day to create a stunt that would expose Tobacco's deceitful selling strategies. We brought the idea to the client, and "Project April" was born. April Fool's Day is a pop culture holiday/event that is widely known for its celebration of stunts and practical jokes. One of our goals for truthsm, as a brand and a movement, is to become a significant part of today's pop culture. Like April Fool's Day, truthsm is renowned for it's daring, rebellious, and, at times, humorous character. Thus, we utilized the similarities between truthsm and April Fool's Day to create a media stunt that would deliver our serious message in a playful manner."Project April" is the first time advertising was used in conjunction with April Fool's Day to sell a brand. We did not simply pull a massive, meaningless, media prank. On the contrary, truthsm succeeded in pulling off one of the most unique, large-scale April Fool's jokes to date, while at the same time achieving its target and message goals.

truthsm is the teen brand that provides America's youth with the true facts and information about the Tobacco Industry. This enables each teen to make an educated decision about smoking for him or herself. In fact, truthsm is actually more than a brand; it is a movement that empowers teens to stand up to Tobacco by refusing to be manipulated as a target of their deadly product.As such, truthsm does not have a tangible product to sell. Instead, the creative message is our product and media is the sole means of distribution. In order to most effectively connect with teens, or "sell" our product, both media and creative must be in perfect sync with truth'ssm creative messaging. In other words, if our creative must have a rebellious, non-corporate, inclusive, non-preachy, empowering feel, so must the media environments in which it runs. Media identified April Fools Day as the perfect platform to expand truth'ssm reach to a broader audience. We developed this concept and recommended truthsm utilize the day to create a stunt that would expose Tobacco's deceitful selling strategies. We brought the idea to the client, and "Project April" was born.