WONGDOODY scored top honors at the Radio Mercury Awards last night for its documentary-style campaign for the Washington State Department of Health titled, “Dear Me.” As the co-Grand Prize winner, WONGDOODY takes home half of the $100,000 prize.
WONGDOODY’s “Dear Me” campaign targets Washington’s working poor, among whom smoking rates are the highest. Traditional efforts to convince this group to quit have failed. Compounding the challenge, the agency was tasked with this during the current down economy, which has been among the most stressful times in recent history for this group.
To urge these smokers to quit without triggering a defensive reaction, WONGDOODY created opportunities for them to convince themselves. The agency asked real smokers to write “Dear Me” letters to themselves about how they feel about their habit and read their letters aloud. The raw recordings of these readings were used for radio PSAs, as well as a TV campaign, with the end line, “No one can make me quit but me.”