Conceptualised by agency Fox P2 and directed by Egg Films’ Bruno Bossie, The Cigarette That Saved Lives is a controversial new commercial for non-profit organisation, The DNA Project.
This NPO is devoted to raising crime scene awareness and fighting crime with science. The commercial depicts yet another brutal South African murder but focuses on the evidence that’s left behind, encouraging viewers to never disturb a crime scene as DNA can convict.
“It came as a surprise, as it does to most people, that we do not have the legislative framework in place to more fully use DNA profiling for crime scene investigation in our country,’ says Bossi.
In South Africa, the National DNA Database only has about 133 000 DNA profiles and there are only two South African Police Services labs that can perform DNA profiling on forensic samples.
The ad is paradoxical: a cigarette saves lives in a commercial where the lead woman dies. “The wonderful thing about this ad is that it creates conversation,’ says The DNA Project founder Vanessa Lynch. “Egg and Fox P2 have done a brilliant job.’
Everyone involved with the shoot worked pro bono, from the crew to the rental houses. “This project struck me as one of the more worthwhile causes in our country,’ says Bruno.
Lynch set up The DNA Project after her father’s murderers went free because DNA evidence left at the crime scene was discarded, destroyed and not properly collected.
“There was only one chance to collect and preserve that evidence, and it was lost,’ she says. “We can never go back, so that crucial link to my father’s killers was lost with it.’
The Cigarette That Saved Lives is currently screening on local broadcasters as part of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children between 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) and 10 December 2011 (International Human Rights Day).
“Awareness is one of our biggest problems,’ says Vanessa. “You can have the laws and systems in place but you only have once chance to gather the evidence before it’s lost forever.’
