Carbon monoxide is a silent killer—odorless, colorless, and often overlooked. To capture attention and save lives, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (MDPS) and the State Fire Marshal partnered with independent media agency KOSE and independent creative agency Electric, to launch a suspense-themed public awareness campaign using classic horror tropes and artificial intelligence to expose a real danger hiding in plain sight.
This campaign presented unique challenges. CO detectors themselves are visually unremarkable — an ordinary white device— not the most engaging visual. But there were other challenges as well, including:
The campaign’s theme, “The Real Killer is Carbon Monoxide,” reimagined safety education through cinematic storytelling. Using AI-assisted animation, each ad built tension like a scary movie—creaking floors, eerie music, a shadowy villain — before revealing the true killer wasn’t a monster at all, but carbon monoxide.
This creative twist reframed a familiar message in an unforgettable way, urging Minnesotans to check and install CO detectors. The campaign ran statewide across digital video, audio, social, display, and real-world placements such as fuel stations and billboards. The campaign stood out for its distinctive creative approach and statewide reach, proving that innovative storytelling can drive meaningful awareness around life-saving information.
Central Purpose
The campaign’s goal was simple but vital: to save lives by raising awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning, a preventable danger that many people often overlook.
Key objectives:
To engage audiences who ignore traditional PSAs, the campaign used suspenseful, horror-inspired parody to capture attention and deliver its lifesaving message.
By transforming a safety message into an entertaining experience, we created a memorable and engaging campaign that not only educated people, but also motivated them to take action.
Approach / Execution
Creative Concept
The creative concept featured eerie, first-person views of ordinary places—a cabin, basement, or garage—seen through the “villain’s eyes.” As suspense builds, the twist reveals CO as the real threat: the victim is motionless and the “villain” leaves, defeated.
Each spot merged AI-generated animation with cinematic lighting, sound design, and classic horror pacing. The tone was spooky but not gory—visually rich and memorable. AI was used to create illustrative, stylized settings that blended realism and fantasy, allowing the team to produce multiple scenarios quickly, affordably, while maintaining creative consistency.
After concept approval, our creative team and production partner used an iterative process with AI. We generated static images as the foundation for prompts, then developed specific prompts to create each scene for our videos. Our production partner animated these images using various AI/animation video tools and edited them together.
We also used AI still images for static ads and leveraged AI voiceover and sound effects in the videos and audio spot. Our creative and production teams assembled all assets, making final decisions to ensure the ads were attention-grabbing and relevant.
Look & Feel
The creative balanced fun and fear—attention-grabbing without being distressing. It struck the right tone: dark and mysterious but not gloomy, letting Minnesotans enjoy the ride before delivering the twist that made them think twice.
Media Strategy
To reach Minnesotans statewide, KOSE executed a multi-channel digital and out-of-home plan, layering awareness and frequency:
By weaving a suspenseful narrative across every touchpoint, Minnesotans encountered the “villain” everywhere—only to discover that the true lesson was about recognizing and eradicating the true threat: carbon monoxide.
Not only were 2,500 carbon monoxide detectors distributed and installed in Minnesota communities helping to protect families and raise awareness, the campaign also delivered outstanding performance across multiple channels achieving remarkable reach, engagement, and cost efficiency:
