Smoke-free Bulgaria: The NO NO Dance
Smoking amongst youngsters in Bulgaria is still dramatically high. One of the reasons for that that it is perceived to be cool.
And also – many teenagers try to emulate the “cool” people around them and on social media. They admire the lifestyle and want to be perceived in a similar way by their peers. And many of our local popular opinion leaders smoke cigarettes. That’s why teenagers have almost no choice when they are given a cigarette for the first time.
To contribute to solve this problem, together with “Smoke-free Bulgaria” NGO, we in Paragraph 42 make a campaign to show that quitting is now even more cool. A campaign, which reminds teenagers that quitting smoking doesn’t make you a loser. It makes you quite the opposite.
We made it with the people they admire and believe – a famous Bulgarian influencer and rapper Virgo, in the channel where they live almost every day – TikTok, through a tool that is attractive for them – specially created dance challenge. We name it “The NO NO Dance” and it motivated youngsters to show their own interpretation of a creative smoke abstaining dance/gesture, using a song that we recorded with Virgo.
TikTok platform isn’t just a social network that makes teenagers dance. It is a project that aims to fill a gap – the ability to easily create attractive video content.
The results: high reach and engagement and declarations among the teenagers, that there are other cool things to do rather than smoking.