France long enjoyed a close relationship with tobacco and, for many years, treated smoking liberally.

Attitudes and behaviors have changed. European integration, a hygienic mindset, tax policies, and demographic shifts all contributed to the changes. Today, France counts about 15 million smokers. Arguably, this is a lot for a country with 60 million inhabitants.

Public health authorities concentrate on smoking among youth. Smokers are in the minority among every age bracket, but the proportion of smokers is highest in the 20-25 age bracket, followed by those age 15-19. In order to reach this population, authorities and advertising agency have created several campaigns. Many are banal, ineffective, or insulting. But some are clever.

My favorite is a spot by French director Yvan Attal, which aired shortly before smoking was prohibited in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. The spot –aired on public television in prime time– grabs your attention by depicting a couple having sex in a storeroom. A voiceover warns: “Caroline’s playing with her life. She doesn’t know that she’s contracting a fatal disease.” Then comes the surprise: the disease has nothing to do with sex. Instead, every day Caroline “absorbs toxic substances”, that stay in the air “hours after their emission”, because she works in the nightclub, cleaning up. The spot ends with the tagline: “let’s not take any more risks”.

I like the spot because Attal managed to put a positive spin on the smoking ban by borrowing a page from safe sex campaigns and by directing concern to others.

Attal has just put out another anti-smoking spot. It’s equally creative. Set in a management meeting, it presents a problem: how to dispose of 60 tons of toxic waste? One manager suggests waste treatment, rejected as too expensive. Another suggests burying the wastes in a vacant lot, rejected as outdated and sure to incur political wrath. Another suggests dumping the waste abroad, rejected out of hand by the boss, now irritated, who asks whether anyone has an idea that’s “simple, economical, and efficient”. Then another manager speaks up: dispose of the waste by having people swallow it. The boss expresses skepticism. But the manager explains that marketing people can persuade youth that this is a great idea. The clincher: this won’t cost the company a cent, because young people will pay for this scheme.

I like the spot because Attal plays on the cynicism teens harbor towards the adult world, shown here to be worse than they had feared. Just as the earlier spot drew on safe sex themes, the new spot draws on strongly negative attitudes towards toxic waste.