Campaign

RSEQ Nicotine

Watch the film · 30 s

17-to-24-year-olds run from ads and hate being lectured. But what they love, they share in droves. To denormalize nicotine among them, the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec had only one option: give them something they want to watch and rewatch, and above all show their friends.

  • ClientRSEQ
  • ScopeConcept, copywriting, script, art direction
  • MediaOut-of-home (subway, bus shelters, buses), TV, web, social media
  • Year2025

Nicotine. Admit it, it sounds like a doll’s name.

And like a horror movie title. That’s where it all started. Nicotine is the haunted doll you can never get rid of: she always comes back, even if you only had a taste once.

“Horror is a genre they know inside out.”

David Lamarche, art director and co-founder of Alléluia

Step one

The first sketches. Already unsettling.

To introduce Nicotine to the client, a mood board created with the help of AI.

A doll in a golden dress walks down a smoky hallway, AI-generated image for the mood board
Silhouette of a doll with glowing eyes at the end of a smoke-filled hallway, AI-generated image for the mood board
A doll with braids surrounded by blue smoke in an old-fashioned living room, AI-generated image for the mood board
A blond doll with a cracked face on a smoky staircase, AI-generated image for the mood board
A doll in a white dress with long blond hair in a dark, smoke-filled room, AI-generated image for the mood board
A seated red-haired doll gazes into the distance as smoke rises, AI-generated image for the mood board
Early project mock-up: a doll’s silhouette in a smoky hallway, with the title “Nicotine” in dripping letters
Early project mock-up
French “Nicotine” poster on the brick wall of a subway station, featuring the red-eyed doll, as a passenger walks by
The final poster, in the subway

Once she’s in your life, she never lets go.

True of a haunted doll. Sadly, true of nicotine too.

The campaign

Impossible to avoid.

On TV, online, in the subway, at bus stops and on buses: Nicotine moved in wherever 17-to-24-year-olds go. Just like the real thing.

The film · 30 s (in French). Best watched with the lights on.
Hands holding a phone showing a doll seated in a car under purple light, a still from the film
On your screen, she takes up all the room.
Bus shelter at night in the smoke, showing the French “Nicotine” poster with the red-eyed doll
At the bus stop, she’s watching.

“I think she really lives up to her name.”

Sylvain Thomin, copywriter and co-founder of Alléluia
Large horizontal French “Nicotine” panel in a subway station stairway, featuring the red-eyed doll
On the platform, she’s waiting.
Side of a bus with the French “Nicotine” ad and the red-eyed doll
On the bus, she follows you.

Good ideas? We never let them go.

At Alléluia, they haunt us for a long time.

Credits

  • ClientRSEQ – De Facto
    Gouvernement du Québec
  • Concept and creativeAlléluia
  • CopywritingSylvain Thomin
  • Art directionDavid Lamarche
  • AgencySteward
    Patrick Béland, Alex Langlois, Adrianne Langlois
  • Production companyoneChuck
    Mathieu Cyr, director

Next project

Alléluia Christmas 2025

Alléluia, a creative communications agency that believes the best results come from the best ideas.

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