«Behind the Smoke», an advertising campaign with a well-guarded price tag

You've got it perhaps seen on a bus shelter, on TV, or in your newspaper. The government's latest campaign - entitled «Behind the Smoke» - aims to raise awareness of the little-known risks associated with cannabis: urban insecurity, school failure and domestic accidents.

One of its special features? Its price, unknown. Neither the government, nor the advertising agency responsible for its design, nor the production company, is willing to give details. According to one source, a campaign of this type «can be in excess of one million euros, or even two or three».

One figure corroborated by a 2012 document, published by the Government Information Service (SIG), the body responsible for communicating executive action and monitoring public opinion. Selon this text, the « average budget per campaign adlicitary, including the costs of design, production and purchase of [advertising] space is relatively low (1,6M€) ». 

The exact cost of «Behind the Smoke» - financed to the tune of 100 % by public funds - is a closely-guarded secret. «We never communicate the cost of awareness campaigns, an advisor to the Prime Minister. He simply concedes that it is a question of «of a big campaign», a sign that it may cost a little more than the others. That's all there is to it. At a time when the State is making a major effort to increase transparency (on public procurement, the ministerial declarations of interest, or the lobbyists registry in Parliament), there are still some poorly lit areas.

112,000 euros for 30 seconds of advertising on TF1

The campaign was commissioned by the government from Publicis, a global communications giant. The advertising agency's copywriters imagined what the campaign would look like, in conjunction with the GIS. Production of the film was then entrusted to La PAC, a Paris-based advertising production company. According to our information, the campaign was shot at the end of July in Orsay and Gif-sur-Yvette (Essonne). Between 50 and 60 people worked on it over two days.

Finally, once the campaign has been shot, all that remains is to broadcast it. For this, the executive entrusts the purchase of advertising space (on TF1, in Le Parisien, ) to Dentsu Consulting, the French branch of the Japanese communications giant. «We buy, we propose, we advise the government on the system to be implemented, explains a source close to the matter.

Buying advertising space is what costs the government the most. For example, a 30-second advertisement broadcast this Thursday on TF1, before the 9 p.m. film, costs 112,000 euros. But this price does not take into account the various possible discounts. Especially when a customer (in this case, the government) buys large volumes of advertising spots.

This is the case for «Behind the Smoke»: the campaign runs for one month, until September 22. It will be followed by two other campaigns devoted to cannabis. In autumn, a campaign dedicated to dangers of cannabis and driving. Finally, at the end of the year, a third and final salvo on the health hazards of the substance.