Smoking Can Make You Croak

Feel thirsty? You might not after watching Frog, the latest public-service television ad from the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation (VTSF).

In Frog – one of a trio of new VTSF TV commercials – a parched teen who’s learning to dissect frogs in her high school biology class decides to chug-a-lug a large beaker of formaldehyde, with the dead amphibian still inside.

“Cigarettes contain formaldehyde – the same stuff used to preserve dead frogs," the ad notes.

Another of the ads, Belly Dance, was selected as a TV Spot of the Week in August by Advertising Age magazine’s Web site.

Belly Dance features two shirtless, overweight teen boys dancing outside Richmond’s abandoned Fulton Gas Works factory to the song “Gotta Reason” by Atlantic Records’ Hard-Fi, a band who have toured with Green Day. Choreography was provided by Lou Barber, noted for choreographing music videos and tours for Grammy-winning R&B singer D’Angelo.

The Belly Dance ad spotlights scientific research published in 2005 by the American Heart Association that states that teen smokers court an increased risk of getting excess belly fat.

The final of the three new ads, Off to School, has a humorous, gross-out take on a teen getting even with his mom, who's smoking in the car as she's driving him to school.

All three ads began airing on network TV statewide in early September. The entire project was overseen by VTSF Marketing Director Danny Saggese. Creative work was done by Richmond-based Barber Martin Advertising, with postproduction video work by Park Group, also in Richmond. The ads were shot in May in Richmond and Henrico County.