To be totally honest: That is pretty much the most radical thing that advertising has ever produced. It started with “maybe”.

“Maybe” turned to “you decide”. Maybe was too dangerous and was forbidden. Why? Too effective for teens. Here the legislature even applied the emergency brake. Because here hardened advertising pros are at work. They are gambling with your advertisement competence and they know exactly where to hit you.

Ok who are they, what are they doing and why do they do it like this and not like the others? In every case they are not maybes. They are gripping, radical, significant, courageous, open and above all encouraging.

They apparently easily trust you to make your own decisions. “You DECIDE.”

They don’t keep on telling you things you already know: For example that this is about cigarettes. Those who don’t know the logo are out. Whatever.

To ensure that not just any Maybe has the brand on their radar it is polished just enough to make it more exiting. No. Not radical enough.

You don’t feel like you’re being taken seriously out there. Only losers always need help. The real ones make it on their own. They always recognize the Marlboro triangle and even more so on the billboards. Other than that one stands out radically from the elevator music of the Maybe’s. No cute pictures, no cheesy trips to the Caribbean, just a couple of cool people who got it. The announcement, the claim and all is well. Intentional typos prominently in white. A lot of white is important.

Otl Aicher would have said: That’s exactly how it works. That was the guy who invented the Olympics logos. 50 years ago. He was one of their teachers. A real talent factory. As he himself was an extreme athlete he would not have liked the topic but technically he wouldn’t have anything to complain about.

An all-star ensemble flexes its muscles: Their hipsters have a high potential of identification, the plots are from real life and the typo is radical. These are very confident announcements. These are people who know what they’re doing. One would like to get to know them. It’s not possible. They don’t want that. But you meet them every couple of hundred meters.

They don’t want to make it easy for you. But they give you one chance. Just one: “you DECIDE”. With their clients they seem likeable. For you they are highly dangerous.