Smoking Skills Beatbox is a clever video to support an important cause

I love this video.

Smoking Skills is a hip and fresh approach to raise awareness for the dangers of smoking amongst urban teens.

The video is directed by Michael Krivicka from New York City and features legendary beatbox artist Kenny Muhammad.

Michael sent me a link to this video ten minutes ago when it had just 13 views. As I blog it the video has 27 views. My guess is that it will have many many more views in the days and weeks to come. Great work Michael.

Direct link to video.

Comments

[Reubenrail]

As I was watching the video I began to remember the studies recorded in the fantastic book "Buyology" - Martin Lindstrom.

The question that pops up for me is does this video actually increase the likelihood that people will smoke?

Before I get any naysayers I recommend you read "Buyology" because they have proven neuromarketing research in there showing how anti-smoking ads actually caused an increase in people's attraction to smoke.

To end on a positive note, I think the video is creative and will spread.

[Christine Scaplen]

Thanks for sharing this. As a marketing and public relations pro in a city with smoking rates significantly higher than the state average, I wanted to see what this was.

I agree with Reubenrail. Conceptually it's a great piece, however, as the parent of middle school age boys, this looks like it will have the opposite effect... There is far too much tantalizing imagery, inviting curiosity versus aversion. (More than a brief cough is needed to get them to realize the message is about.) Drag it out with more graphic imagery, and it might work, but you're going to really need to shake them out of all the cool smoking visuals. The content itself seems more likely to encourage experimentation than curb it.

Curious what others think as we are all out looking for ways to get the tobacco-free message out to youth with impact.

[Ricardo Bueno]

Dig the video and the cause it's supporting. Always nice to see someone get creative in delivering a powerful message.

[Rana Impune]

Other examples of Marketing Beat Box... http://bit.ly/dem3Rj

[Rick House]

Cool video. Saving lives is the name of the game. I hope this video is watched by as many young people as possible, so that they can avoid the hard path that I took!