Truth told us they were planning on having 120 "zombies" descend on a flagship Walgreens store in Washington D.C. in an orchestrated Zombie March Protest to pressure the store to remove all tobacco products from its shelves.
Our immediate response was, "Yes! We are in!" The rawness of this guerrilla marketing stunt harkened back to a classic Truth commercial from the 2000s called "Body Bags," and we wanted this video piece to pay homage to that campaign. Our overarching direction was to blend a raw documentary approach with carefully choreographed moments to showcase the zombies descending on Walgreens alongside the spontaneous public reactions.
The final content reached more than 1.45 million people in the target Gen Z audience across all of truth's social channels, surpassing their 1 million goal. 216 news outlets, including The Huffington Post, reported on the event.
TRUTH - zombie March
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW LIPTAK
The result successfully pressured America's second-largest pharmacy chain into launching a tobacco-free pilot program across 17 Florida stores—a compelling testament to youth-powered advocacy challenging corporate hypocrisy and championing public health over profit.
Video assets helped drive 9,000+ petition signatures and 122 calls to Walgreens HQ
Video content supported truth's larger advocacy strategy that ultimately led to Walgreens' pilot program removing tobacco from stores
Same day, quick turnaround editing, allowed for timely distribution ahead of the Walgreens shareholder meeting and top of mind content for PR push
The final video won a Gold Reggie Award and a Shorty Award