Body Tells a Story – Non-smoking campaign (Case: Pfizer)

By Riina Laine

One of the most interesting body painting commissions I have had so far – I was booked to create body paintings for a Non-Smoking campaign event for Pfizer. My assignment was to create the damages of smoking on to three models. This was the first time body painting was used for something like this in Finland. Usually body art is thought to be just fantasy and pure imagination, but this case was an amazing example how body painting can be used as a visual storyteller of facts too – the paintings conveyed a real message in a very memorable way.

The case took a lot of planning beforehand. I was provided with really good anatomical reference pictures by my client as their wish was to have as realistic paintings as possible. The damages of smoking in the human body are serious so everyone agreed the end result should be somewhat exaggarated, shocking even. I was happy I was given artistic freedom to adjust the realism and create my interpretation of the concept.

I had a team of three collegues helping me and it still took us 7 hours to execute the detailed designs. But it was all worth it. The models attracted enormous attention in Kamppi and Helsinki city centre. People stopped to really look at them and we heard comments like “haunting”, “scary”, “influental” and just “wow”. Body painting really brought harmful effects of smoking on the skin – and left them permanently in people’s minds.

The event was organised by Pfizer, together with Hengitysliitto (The Organisation for Respiratory Health in Finland), Suomen Ash (Finland’s Ash), Stumppi.fi and Savuton Suomi (Finland Smoke-free by 2040).

The campaign success continued

Body Tells a Story proved to be an amazingly successful concept. Original campaign took place in Helsinki and it was then re-created next year for SuomiAreena in Pori, Finland. Again the campaign was picked up by many news sites and social media. Thought-provoking paintings really pass the message to the viewer and make you think twice about smoking and what it does to your body.

This guerilla campaign was praised internationally and I am so happy for the communications agency Ahjo Comms (former AC Sanafor) for the acclaim they received – the campaign won Silver Stevie Award at the 2015 International Business awards and it received Honorary Recognition of Excellence at 2015 Pharmaceutical Information Act of the Year! It was also short-listed at SABRE Awards EMEA 2015 and IPRA Golden World Awards!