Powerful PSAs - Smoking is Murder

These PSA ads for CONAC (Children Corporation Against Cancer) deliver a powerful message through very disturbing imagery.

The message is “Smoking isn’t just suicide. It’s murder.” And the delivery is pretty dramatic, using images of terrified sobbing little kids with smoke surrounding their head; giving the visual illusion of a plastic bag that is being used to strangle and murder them.

Though I find the images very disturbing, I think the ‘shock-factor’ is warranted. One look at the ads drives the message home, when you smoke next to a child, you are killing him; an important issue that all parents who smoke inside the house need to be aware of.

Check more powerful PSA ads and campaigns that were featured in Trend Hunter:

Self Defence Public Awareness Ads - Pepper Spray (GALLERY)

These creative public awareness ads from Thailand relay an important message. Girls & boys, always have a pepper spray ready in dangerous places.The campaign smartly plays on the tag line “When they can’t see, they can’t hurt you” by blackening out the attacker through the range of the pepper spra… [More]

Domestic Violence Ads - City of Hope (VIDEO)

The United Arab Emirates has been producing some very creative ads recently and seems to be claiming a spot in the competitive world of advertising. These new City of Hope ads by TBWARAAD Abu Dhabi ad agency are a good example. City of Hope assists women facing domestic violence, a social concern w… [More]

Powerful PSAs - Sexual Abuse (VIDEO)

Sexual abuse is not a light subject, and this powerful appropriately creepy and disturbing public service announcement video ad successfully delivers the message: “If sexually abused children never get help, they never outgrow their trauma.” The ad is very effective in conveying the trauma that abu… [More]

Eastern European Shockvertising - APFR Battered Women Ads

The Association for the Promotion of Women in Romania (APFR is the acronym in Romanian) put out this ad showcasing the plight of battered women in that Eastern European Country. The very same ad could be splattered on any public telephone of any country in the world. Some well traveled, abused clich… [More]

Guerilla Obesity Awareness Campaign - Every Fifth Child is Overweight (GALLERY)

Child obesity is fast becoming a global epidemic. The Health Promotion Switzerland foundation has come up with a creative guerilla campaign to raise the awareness of this serious issue. The campaign uses the fact/slogan “Every Fifth Child is Overweight” on stickers placed on creatively designed p… [More]

Social Guerilla Campaigns - Child Labour (GALLERY)

World Vision launched a campaign in Netherland to raise awareness of the issue of child labour on the 26th of March, 2008. One hundred children demonstrated and visited embassies and the Dutch House of Parliament that day. Ad agency Ogilvy came up with this creative guerilla campaign to support th… [More]

Human Rights HIV Campaign Shows Compassion- Be Like Nobody (GALLERY)

When a person has AIDS, he or she not only has to deal with health issues, they also have to face the judgmental and prejudiced response from the society they live in. From being excluded from social gatherings to being discriminated against at work, the overall social community makes it harder to l… [More]

Shocking PETA Ads - Kentucky Fried Cruelty (VIDEO)

This makes you think twice before hitting up a KFC. PETA tried to run three Superbowl ads that are critical of fast-food chain KFC’s (Kentucky Fried Cruelty) abuse of chickens, but Fox Channel turned down $4.2 million from PETA and sent the following statement: “As a general rule, time will not be s… [More]

Youth Shockvertising II - CONCEPT ‘Don’t Lose Control’ Child Abuse Ad (GALLERY)

These concept ads related to child-protection are very disturbing. But so is the subject matter. Domestic violence is a serious issue that can leave a child scarred for life. This ad campaign, with realistic looking blood, drives the point home. The child protection agencies are intended to shield… [More]