Truth, the nation’s largest youth smoking prevention campaign, today launched its latest mobile game, Graffiti Collective. In Graffiti Collective, players use their creative skills to create on-screen graffiti that can be geo-tagged or overlaid on players’ photos. The game’s storyline brings people together to reclaim the streets from graffiti artists spreading propaganda. Graffiti Collective is available for free download on select Apple and Android devices.
“truth always aims to connect with teens’ passions and interests, choosing initiatives and channels where we know teens and young people like to be,” said Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of Legacy, the national public health foundation that directs and funds the truth campaign. “With Graffiti Collective, truth reaches teens through their mobile devices with a fun, artistic and educating game that allows young people to explore their creativity through graffiti art and then share with friends.”
Graffiti Collective was inspired by a 1998 document found in Big Tobacco’s files that discusses “covertly” contacting graffiti artists to ask them to paint for the companies “in key locations.” In the game, players join “The Collective” (TIV) with the goal of ridding their “home turf” of “Mind Fake Inc.” (MFI), a group of graffiti artists hired to spread propaganda.
The game invites players to interact through four main portals: Create, Battle, Explore and SprayPix.
Create:
- Players can create their own unique graffiti pieces. Players start with creating a “Tag,” the most basic form of graffiti in the game.
- As players progress, they acquire different paint colors, fonts, symbols, and other cool effects that allow them to create “Throwies,” “Burners” and “Free-Style” works of graffiti.
Battle:
- Using the location-awareness of mobile devices, players will be prompted to expose and eradicate MFI’s lies by placing their own artwork over MFI’s.
- Various missions will become available as players progress through the game. By completing these missions, players will earn “Skillz” that can be used to purchase additional graffiti fonts and paint colors.
Explore:
- Players can post the pieces they have created on any location of the map for other players to view. If they see a piece they like, they can give it “Props”. “Props” give players additional “Respect” points. As players earn more “Respect”, they will level up and have access to more advanced graffiti techniques as well as additional fonts and paint colors.
Spray Pix:
- Augmented reality allows players the ability to superimpose their virtual graffiti pieces over a real-life photo. The piece appears in their viewfinder preview and they can then align it with objects in the surrounding environment. As they take the photo from within the game, the piece is merged as an overlay.
- Players can share their photos with their Facebook friends through a share button.
While street culture is not new to today’s youth, graffiti artists like Banksy and Pixnit have brought the art to a more mainstream, pop culture audience, where finished work can be found in exhibits and online productions as easily as art is seen on the street. With teens increasing their affinity for this culture, the genre presents an opportune way to reach and converse with teens, offering a platform that may be of more interest than traditional health messaging genres.
