Tobacco Free Florida's 'The Reasons' by alma spotlights real rural Florida smokers in a 2018 documentary series tackling the emotional grip of tobacco
ARCHIVETobacco Free Florida Finds the Human Cost of Smoking in Rural America
Tobacco Free Florida's "The Reasons" is a 2018 documentary-style public service campaign, created by alma and directed by Floyd Russ, that follows real smokers from rural Florida communities to expose the emotional and financial contradictions of tobacco addiction.
The campaign centres on Angela Cotto, an HR professional and mother, alongside other named participants including Adam and additional community members, each filmed in their own environment explaining why they want to quit smoking — and why they have not yet done so. The series does not dramatise or reconstruct. It observes. The participants live paycheck to paycheck, work multiple jobs, and struggle to cover basic necessities, yet collectively spend thousands of dollars a year on cigarettes, as documented by the campaign's own creative brief. Smoking has become, in the words of those featured, not an indulgence but a release — a necessity, a reward, and, paradoxically, a breath of fresh air.
The campaign launched in the United States in April 2018 and was published across content media, comprising six documented assets. It was produced for Tobacco Free Florida, the state-funded programme tasked with reducing tobacco use across Florida, by Miami-based agency alma, also referred to in industry records as alma DDB. Production was handled by Tool of North America. The geographic focus is deliberate: rural Florida communities, where smoking rates are approximately 33% higher than the rest of the state, according to Little Black Book. "The Reasons" targets precisely the population that mainstream cessation advertising — built on national statistics and clinical language — has historically failed to reach. The Clapboard Score for this campaign is 63 out of 100, reflecting strong creative ambition offset by limited documented performance data.
ARCHIVETobacco Free Florida made a decisive break from precedent with "The Reasons." Prior to 2018, the programme had relied on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's nationally distributed "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign, including testimony from Terrie Hall, whose graphic depiction of cancer consequences defined a particular era of deterrent-led anti-tobacco communication, as documented by lbbonline.com. That approach assumed shock and medical consequence would motivate behaviour change. "The Reasons" assumes the opposite: that the people most resistant to quitting already know the consequences and remain unmoved by them.
The strategic insight driving the campaign, as reported by lbbonline.com and reflected in alma's own published materials at almaad.com, is that for low-income rural smokers in Florida, cigarettes function as one of the few accessible forms of relief in economically constrained lives. Addressing addiction without addressing that psychological and social function is, the campaign argues implicitly, insufficient. By embedding real participants in their actual domestic and professional environments, alma created a social experiment in empathy rather than a traditional public service announcement.
In the United States, Tobacco Free Florida invested approximately $160 million in paid advertising between 2011 and 2018, according to research cited in available campaign documentation. That sustained investment provides the institutional context for understanding why a single campaign shift toward documentary craft represents a meaningful strategic evolution rather than an isolated experiment. Competitors in the cessation space, including the CDC's own national campaigns and Truth Initiative's youth-focused counter-tobacco work, operated primarily through broadcast and digital at scale. Alma's approach for Tobacco Free Florida was, by contrast, hyper-local and portrait-driven, using the specificity of rural Florida life to generate identification rather than fear.
Floyd Russ directed "The Reasons" for Tool of North America, bringing a documentary sensibility that separates the work from the genre conventions of public service advertising. According to lbbonline.com, the campaign received industry praise for what critics described as beautiful craft, with particular recognition for its direction, cinematography, and casting approach. The films do not use actors. They use people — specifically, smokers from a rural Florida community who agreed to be observed rather than performed.
The creative leadership at alma shaped the campaign's editorial voice. Jorge Murillo served as VP Executive Creative Director for Copy, with Monserrat Valera as Creative Director for Art, as documented at almaad.com and adsoftheworld.com. The broader creative and operational structure included Creative Chairman and CEO Luis Miguel Messianu, Co-President and Chief Creative Officer Alvar Suñol, Senior Integrated Producer Mimi Cossio, Account Director Elizabeth McCarthy, Account Supervisor Claudia Rodriguez, and Planner Tamara Sotelo. SVP Operations Michelle Headley oversaw production logistics across a campaign that comprised six media assets spanning content, radio, and print formats.
The visual grammar of the series is consistent with observational documentary tradition: close framing, natural light, and extended silence that allows subjects to arrive at their own conclusions on camera. Angela Cotto, the campaign's most prominent subject, is not coached toward an anti-tobacco statement. She is asked to articulate her reasons. The tension between what she wants for herself and her family and what she continues to do is the advertisement. That structural choice — withholding the argument and trusting the subject — is the creative risk that earned the campaign a 2018 Cannes Lions Bronze in the Film category, as reported by lbbonline.com and confirmed in alma's agency documentation at almaad.com, along with five additional shortlists in Radio and Print at Cannes that same year.
"The Reasons" earned a Bronze Lion in the Film category at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as reported by lbbonline.com and documented in alma's public agency materials at almaad.com. The campaign also received five shortlists across Radio and Print categories at Cannes 2018, with specific category names not publicly detailed, as noted in available award records. A Clio Awards Bronze in 2018 is referenced in campaign planner Tamara Sotelo's LinkedIn profile, though no independently verifiable Clio award record has been located by Clapboard's editorial team.
No verified performance data quantifying quit attempts, viewer reach, or behaviour change attributable specifically to "The Reasons" is publicly available. What the award record does confirm is that the creative community recognised the campaign's structural integrity: a public service film that earns attention not through graphic consequence but through the unresolved, lived honesty of its subjects. In the United States, where Tobacco Free Florida had spent approximately $160 million on paid advertising between 2011 and 2018, according to campaign documentation, the move toward documentary storytelling represents a measurable editorial investment in craft over reach. The campaign's structural effectiveness lies in its refusal to resolve the tension it presents. Angela Cotto and the other participants do not quit on camera. They explain why they want to. That incompleteness is the honesty that distinguishes "The Reasons" from conventional smoking cessation advertising and makes it a durable creative reference point within the public service category.
"The Reasons" is a 2018 documentary-style public service campaign created by alma for Tobacco Free Florida. It features real smokers from rural Florida communities explaining their motivations to quit smoking. The series launched in April 2018 across the United States and comprises six media assets directed by Floyd Russ for Tool of North America.
Floyd Russ directed "The Reasons" through production company Tool of North America. Russ brought an observational documentary approach to the campaign, filming real participants including Angela Cotto in their own environments. According to lbbonline.com, the direction, cinematography, and casting drew specific industry praise following the campaign's April 2018 launch.
"The Reasons" won a Bronze Lion in the Film category at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, as reported by lbbonline.com. The campaign also received five additional shortlists in Radio and Print categories at Cannes 2018. Specific subcategory names for the shortlisted entries are not publicly documented in available award records.
Alma focused on rural Florida because smoking rates in those communities were approximately 33% higher than the statewide rate, according to lbbonline.com. The agency identified that low-income rural smokers used cigarettes as psychological relief in economically constrained lives, a reality that national deterrent-led cessation campaigns had not meaningfully addressed within the United States.
Angela Cotto is an HR professional and mother who appears as the primary subject in "The Reasons" campaign. She is a real smoker, not an actor, filmed explaining her desire to quit tobacco alongside the personal and financial pressures she faces. Her unresolved on-camera testimony is central to the campaign's documentary strategy, as documented by almaad.com.
"The Reasons" marked a 2018 shift away from hard-hitting nationally sourced testimonial advertising, including the CDC's "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign featuring Terrie Hall, as reported by lbbonline.com. Alma replaced graphic consequence-led messaging with locally grounded documentary storytelling, trusting participants' unscripted testimony to communicate the emotional complexity of quitting smoking in rural Florida.
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