Depression Stick fake vape brand shows vaping's mental-health toll — Grand Effie US 2023

Truth Initiative research found 81% of young people who used e-cigarettes did so to ease stress, anxiety or depression — yet nicotine can amplify exactly those feelings. The nonprofit needed to reach teens who tune out traditional anti-drug ads and distrust institutions.

Create a fake vape brand that honestly sells 'vapes that feel like anxiety,' mirroring Big Tobacco's playbook so teens see vaping as a mental-health trap.

Mojo Supermarket built a fully realized fake company — Depression Stick! — with flavors like Citrus Sadness, Bubble Glum and Disappoint-mint, a DepressionStick.com site, a Times Square billboard, a fake storefront, influencer unboxings and TikTok takeovers. Hidden-camera films followed its 'VP of Marketing' trying to sell depression to gas stations, influencers and ad agencies, who all refused; truth revealed it was behind the brand during Sunday Night Football. The follow-up Breath of Stress Air sold 'fresh air' vapes to bust the stress-relief myth.

The Grand Effie-winning platform (US 2023) ran from September 2021; a peer-reviewed study in Tobacco Control found that in weeks of high campaign awareness (>65%), young people had 14–18% lower odds of currently vaping, and estimated the campaign prevented 1.3 million young people from starting to vape between September 2021 and October 2022.

Truth Initiative's research showed the mental-health angle was the way in: 81% of young people who vaped started to lessen stress, anxiety or depression, even though nicotine can amplify those feelings. The challenge was reaching a generation that tunes out anti-drug ads.

Mojo Supermarket built a complete fake company, Depression Stick!, complete with board members, the tagline 'Why be happy when you can be sad?', flavors such as Citrus Sadness, Bubble Glum and Disappoint-mint, a Times Square billboard, a fake storefront, influencer unboxings and TikTok takeovers. Hidden-camera films followed its 'VP of Marketing' trying to sell depression to gas stations, influencers and ad agencies — everyone refused.

Truth revealed it was behind the brand during Sunday Night Football in September 2021. The follow-up, Breath of Stress Air, sold 'fresh air' vapes to bust the industry's stress-relief myth. The work won the Grand Effie at the 2023 Effie Awards US, plus Effies in David vs Goliath and Disease Awareness & Education.

A peer-reviewed study in Tobacco Control — the first to prove a national vaping-prevention campaign worked — found 14–18% lower odds of current e-cigarette use in weeks of high campaign awareness, and estimated the campaign prevented 1.3 million young people from starting to vape between September 2021 and October 2022.

The insight attacked the real reason teens vape — self-medicating stress — instead of repeating 'vaping is bad'.

The fake brand was so complete that the satire did the arguing: an 'honest' vape company was obviously absurd.

Hidden-camera scenes with real influencers and agencies made the point viral, and the Sunday Night Football reveal gave it a national stage.

It converted an invisible mechanism of harm into a product you could almost hold, making a statistic feel concrete to teens.

The platform compounded — Depression Stick, then Breath of Stress Air — giving the insight two full campaigns and measurable quitting behavior.

Satirize the opponent's own playbook: a fully built fake brand made an invisible harm tangible, and the moment 'honesty' became absurd, the audience got the argument — no lecturing required.

Breath of Stress Air expanded the platform in March 2022, and truth later added 'Toxic Therapy from Your Vape' with Chris Parnell as a faux therapist. The work took the Grand Effie at the 2023 Effie Awards US, and the Tobacco Control study became the first evidence that a national vaping-prevention campaign lowered e-cigarette use among young people.