Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department
Escape the Vape
Tacoma–Pierce County Health Department needed a public service announcement that teens wouldn’t tune out. Rather than lead with warnings, we listened. By engaging student audiences early and often, JayRay developed and tested multiple creative directions, shaping the final PSA around anxiety and mental health — connecting the risks of vaping to emotions teens already recognize and navigate every day.
GUIDING THOUGHT
Behavior change doesn’t start with lectures; it starts with trust. For youth audiences especially, messages only land when they feel honest and relevant. By putting teen voices at the center of the creative process, public health campaigns can move beyond resistance and into resonance, meeting young people where they actually are, not where adults assume they might be.
Messages Teens Would Actually Hear
We created three distinct anti-vaping PSA concepts designed specifically for middle school audiences. Each explored consequences through a different lens — from physical effects to emotional and psychological impact — recognizing that not all messages resonate the same way.
Tested Where It Counts
JayRay facilitated structured feedback sessions with students, guiding them through script readings and open conversation. Teens evaluated tone, believability and emotional impact, offering unfiltered insight into what felt real — and what didn’t.
Those sessions made one thing clear: anxiety-focused messaging resonated most in an already high-pressure environment. We refined the creative accordingly, building a PSA concept that met teens where they were emotionally and culturally — not where adults assumed they were.
Results: Sustained
