Anti-smoking advertising has become so effective that it is now more powerful than GPs in persuading smokers to kick their habit, a study has claimed.
New shock tactics such as posters showing cigarettes dripping fat to demonstrate the effect of smoking on arteries, have helped quadruple the effectiveness of the government's anti-smoking campaign, according to research by the Tobacco Education Campaign Tracking study for February 2004.
The study shows advertising campaigns prompted 32% of recent attempts to kick the habit while GPs were responsible for just 21%.
The study also shows that a two-year campaign run by a coalition of the NHS, Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation has been far more effective than previous anti-smoking campaigns run by the Department of Health.
"By spreading the load, there was less chance that smokers would feel victimised," said a report on the campaign, which won a gold award at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising effectiveness awards this week.
The anti-tobacco campaign, created by advertising agencies Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Euro RSCG London, has already beaten its targets and persuaded 1 million people to give up smoking, according to the report.
"We wanted to bring smokers with us rather than turn them against us," said Clare Hutchinson of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.
The two-year campaign was successful because it gave smokers several reasons to quit rather than focusing exclusively on health.
One campaign, created by Abbott Mead Vickers for the NHS, showed children breathing out cigarette smoke to emphasise the dangers of passive smoking.
Bartle Bogle Hegarty and Cancer Research UK created a campaign to show that low-tar cigarettes were not less dangerous, by giving sharks and other deadly animals such as sharks nice names such as Susie and Rosie.
Smoking costs the NHS £1.5bn each year. It kills 120,000 annually, more than five times the collective death toll from car crashes, alcohol and drug abuse accidents, murders, suicides and Aids.
Post by Goh
1 comment:
It is nice that there are campaigns that support anti-smoking campaign! Smoking can cause lots of illness in health. That's why people are encouraged to quit this habit. Well, quitting is not easy! You'll do it one step at a time, and a smoker should has determination. Hopefully, one day, there are more alternatives for this habit.
Clarice Fullington
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