I‘ve come to enjoy the predictable (9 out of 10…) leap people make onto their soapboxes if ever I mention that Ergo work on tobacco. It’s fascinating how strong the reflex is and intriguing that people within marketing tend to leap with the most vitriol. Why so black and white? Isn’t such a binary stance entirely at odds with the nature of our decision making in day-to-day life? Real decisions are multi-faceted, jumble-y, trade off-y and ultimately some sort of middle ground. Can we really not allow tobacco off its ‘quit or die’ hook for a second to see what it can do in a more compromising realm? Trust the Swedes to have taken the lead with snus, the type of tobacco we work with, and something that most Swedes are proud of. It’s an oral product that delivers tobacco pleasure in a non-burning format and it’s 96% less harmful than cigarettes. Not only does it have good intentions towards its users, it also has no physical impact whatsoever on anyone else. A pretty good kind of compromise. We love helping brands make positive progress and definitely not just the fluffy ones.