National Cancer Institute Tabado Games kicks off with ici Barbes

Dec. 10, 2019

Students in apprentice training centres and vocational education colleges are twice as likely to smoke (47%) than their counterparts in general and technological colleges (22%). So how do you motivate them to stop smoking? ici Barbès took up the challenge by creating the Tabado Games for the National Cancer Institute (INCa), which coordinates a school anti-smoking program, Tabado, in conjunction with stakeholders in local health promotion.

Tabado Games take the codes of the world of sport to offer students and teachers the opportunity to take part in a challenge between schools during the school year.

ici Barbès created the whole operation with “get rid of tobacco” as an overall concept:

• posters publicising the arrival of Tabado Games in the institutions;
• a booklet is handed out at the first meeting;
• a film encourages young people to enter the game!

And to keep them motivated, the agency has also created:

• a dedicated Tabado and Tabado Games website for students, partner schools, and parents;
• a dedicated version of the Kwit quit smoking app;
• geo-localized Snapchat filters offered as the program progresses.

Alexandre Drouillard, Creative Director, says:

“Quitting tobacco is a difficult process... So it was necessary to adopt a cool, light-hearted approach to make students want to enroll in the Tabado program. This “no stress” approach is an essential component in convincing the students.”

This year the aim of the National Cancer Institute and local health promotion actors is to motivate and support 140 schools, or more than 60,000 students, to quit smoking. Effective, free and motivational, the Tabado programme has already proved its worth, with the new structures resulting in twice as many people quitting.