“I Was Tricked Into an Ad Campaign”
Craig felt conned by VICE into being the face of Philip Morris International’s PR stunt titled “Change Incorporated”.
- Craig volunteered for what they believed was a small, artsy documentary.
- The video, geo-locked to the UK, has over half a million views on FB & YouTube.
- Craig is an artist, model and ‘vulnerable adult’ in the UK.
- Only agreed to film under certain terms, which were not met.
- The casting director they were initially in communication with, left the production the day after it filmed and were reassigned to the producer.
- Never told the video was funded by Philip Morris International (PMI).
- Feels video was edited out of context and made to seem desperate.
- Craig is considering legal action.
Craig Template, a mixed-media artist from the UK, reached out to me on Twitter last week. I recognized him (preferred pronoun) from a Vice video funded by Big Tobacco. I had recently investigated the multi-million dollar partnership between Vice and PMI. Vice Media had previously made unbranded ads for PMI and was pivoting to “branded content” under the name “Change Incorporated”. As explained by a whistle-blower: Vice would falsely claim editorial independence and internally stifle videos that look critically at Big Tobacco.
It’s illegal to advertise smoking in the UK, so Vice and PMI have been tight-lipped using NDAs to silence those involved. Financial Times reported a source saying the deal is worth $6.5M USD. My source said it’s over ten times that much.
Craig, who frequently posts about smoking on social media, was in a video smoking and talking about how they love smoking. Directed and edited by Emily McDonald, who smokes and is getting married to a smoker (according to recent public Instagram posts). For legal reasons the video is tagged “#quitcigarettes”. This thinly veiled ad is similar to last year’s “Hold My Light” campaign funded by PMI.
“Significant numbers of people will be fooled into believing that a company, the main product of which has caused millions of premature deaths, can have its customers’ health interests at heart. Significant sections of the public are listening uncritically to what corporations tell them and taking it at face value. That is nothing less than a national education emergency.” — David Mitchell writing for The Guardian in 2018. Philip Morris’ cigarette ad — a classic case of smokes and mirrors.
All persons mentioned in the interview below were reached for comment — none were provided at the time of publication. A whistle-blower of the Vice / PMI team said production was told not to divulge the PMI relationship at all to subjects but rather to “say that a tobacco company was supporting it”. Alternatively “only to divulge PMI after talking to a subject a couple times”. And that not all team members being briefed the same way seemed common.
Interview with Craig Template
Messages are shared with permission and edited for length.
CRAIG TEMPLATE: I was tricked into taking part in that ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN. I wasn’t paid, I believed it was an artsy little documentary which I was told was neither pro or anti smoking. I’ve been clipped and made to sound like I go round pubs taking cig butts out of ashtrays. Made to sound like a depressed victim. Now I discover its part of a 5 Milli campaign… which I guess you could say I’m the FACE of.
The whole thing is completely fucking crazy… and NOT what i was told it was. I’m seriously fucked off
NOT VICE: So who reached out to you?
CT: Backstory: a girl I’d met before who works in casting heard from one of her friends that they were looking for smokers for a Vice documentary… so she put me in touch with a girl over there. I’ve previously been cast on a game show and was recently in a photography book as a model. I like doing things with other creative people — which I thought this was
NV: Put in touch with Emily McDonald [in credits as Director / Editor]? Or Henrietta [in credits as Casting Researcher]?
CT: I was put in touch with Henrietta Bennett who I believed worked for VICE / diagonal view. The day after the shoot both Henrietta and LUCY Edmonds — who was there at the shoot — sent me an email saying they’d both left the company and to contact Stuart Hall with any questions.
NV: They say why they left?
CT: “Moving onto new projects”. This didn’t raise any alarm bells to me… which it probably should have.
NV: Can you recall when you first heard PMI was involved? I’ve been told that people weren’t told until after filming but before signing anything.
CT: I wasn’t told ANYTHING about PMI. I finally watched the insta advert on Saturday with friends (more about that as we go through this BS) and then I discovered the YouTube. I was pretty mad. I googled around after seeing the video and read about PMI and this £5million etc
Then I discovered your site.
NV: Jesus, they never mentioned PMI?
CT: Not that I recall.
It’s worth noting — I’m a vulnerable person with mental health issues which means I need what’s called in the UK an “appropriate adult” to be in the room with me when I talk to the police etc
But I’d thought these were creative types making an artsy documentary which I was happy to do for FREE. My one request was that I’m credited as CRAIG TEMPLATE.
My reason being — anyone who sees it and likes me can google me and find my art… I might get a few followers. They didn’t credit me as Craig Template of course and when I saw that I was pissed — this is before I even realised its a marketing campaign!
NV: Right, the presumption if you’re an artist and their an artist there is something mutually beneficial happening
CT: I get filmed smoking 2 cigarettes and they took a few photos of me. Then they interviewed me for 30–45mins. The interview was really light hearted and jovial. There was an audio guy and Emily McDonald interviewing me in the room while the rest of production listened out of the room.
This video is CLIPPED to make me sound so depressed and down… 30+mins reduced to 3mins. The “cigarette butts out of ashtrays” line blows me mind — I was talking about MY cigarette butts IN MY HOUSE. I don’t go to pubs or bars… they make it sound like I’m picking up other people’s DISGUSTING.
Oh — and I’m furious that I’m talking about my boyfriend on this ADVERTISEMENT. That’s a line too far! After that interview I went home none the wiser.
Do you want to know how I discovered this was an advertisement?
NV: How?
CT: Ok so… about 7 days ago people on insta start sending me screenshots of an advert that was popping up with me on it. I’m kinda surprised by this — thinking this was gonna be a little documentary that no one was gonna see. Then more and more people start sending me these screenshots the more concerned I got cos I’m like WHOS PAYING FOR THIS?
I’m not credited how I asked — which was my one request and my reason for doing this “documentary”.
NV: The only thing that actually works as anti-smoking is visceral disgust (like the images on packaging, but most get numbed to the repeating images)
CT: Yeah they are advertising cigarettes under the guise of selling VAPES if you ask me. Like when you find out the people funding one side of the war is also funding the other side. I’m just collateral damage to these hateful fucks.
NV: Yep, it’s so crazy that they are getting away with this.
CT: Some friends came over on Friday night and I’m telling them how weird it is that this advert keeps coming up. We watch it and my friends all fell about laughing at how I sound so depressed and like a victim so DESPERATELY wanting cigarettes I pick up other people’s fag ends.
JUST THEN this other friend calls and says “I was just working on something and suddenly I heard your voice and thought I’d accidentally called you”. He goes on to explain that he’d had YouTube on in the background and THIS ADVERT started playing.
I start really panicking. I’m like — it’s being promoted EVERYWHERE?! This friend doesn’t even have any social media accounts and he’s heard it? FUCK ME.
I watch the longer version on YouTube and that’s when I google who PMI are and find out it’s Big Tobacco.
And then I find your article. I was completely shocked that they’ve taken my image and made me the front person of their campaign. I’d been told the “documentary” was neither pro or anti smoking… yet at the end of my ADVERT it has a hashtag #quitcigarettes
NV: The goal is to convince people that PMI wants to change while not actually changing.
CT: YES!
NV: You were told it was neither pro or anti smoking? Is that written anywhere?
CT: By cutting my requested credit — and not paying me — they’ve done as much good for me as the cigarettes ever did. They’re crafty fuckers — my pre-casting interview with Henrietta was over Skype. So no written records.
But as you can see in this email it says it’s a “VICE smoking project”. Consistent with the ruse that this was a Vice documentary about smoking.
They listed me as “CRAIG, 30”. [Craig highlights an article showing Vice’s readership is 18–34]
I’m 38. [Craig shares proof they sent production a passport with birth date 1980]
NV: That’s so weird. And you sent your ID!
CT: It’s just so mind blowing how twisted and fraudulent all this is. I’m outraged.
NV: Do you want to be compensated?
CT: My main reason for seeking you out to give my side of the story is to hopefully help other people not be tricked. I thought I was working with other artists, creative types… but they’re con artists and the only thing they’re creative with is the truth. My friends have had a hard time understanding what’s happened — probably because the whole thing is confusing.
I suspect they don’t tell people the truth and don’t pay them for their time to help avoid advertising laws. The whole things a giant scam. God only knows where all that Big Tobacco money ended up but it wasn’t in my pocket.
I left happy and excited to watch the “documentary”. Everyone had been really nice to me and I now realise that’s all part of the scam… get you in there, everyone seems cool and on the level so you’re really relaxed about everything. Make you sign an NDA so you can’t even talk to your friends about what you’ve just taken part in… because one of your mates might have heard about this Philip Morris deal and warn you to try and stop your footage being used.
NV: Another subject who talked about mental health issues and told me they didn’t know PMI funded the video. (Then a day later said they could recall production mentioning it).
CT: I’ve been thinking about this myself… DID THEY TELL ME WHILE I WAS THERE? They might have… but that’s still getting you there under false pretenses and then BAMBOOZLING YOU… how are you meant to process exactly what all that means? I still left thinking id taken part in a documentary… that i’d maybe be on screen for 4 minutes of a 45 minute documentary.
NV: Time to lawyer up. To not indicate that something is funded by a tobacco company, clearly and unambiguously, at multiple stages of production is unconscionable.
With 320,000 views on Facebook and 260,000 on YouTube, Craig is the most watched / promoted video in the Change Incorporated campaign.
At the time of publication, the videos were still online and geo-locked to the UK. If you’re a journalist or anti-tobacco researcher outside the UK I can provide a download link.
ABOUT NOT VICE
not vice is a blog critical of Vice Media.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Daniel Voshart is a former documentary filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. He works full-time as the Virtual Reality Specialist on Star Trek: Discovery. He writes in his spare time and occasionally does forensic video consulting.
ABOUT CRAIG
Craig Template is an artist, muse, DJ and model from the UK. Their art can be found on Instagram, their music on iTunes.
