Anti-Smoking Advertisements Have Positive Result

The Tips from Former Smokers ad campaign was launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health on March 19. The commercials profile former smokers and others who have been affected by second-hand smoking. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says just two weeks after the ads started running, the Tips from Former Smokers campaign caused the quit line's numbers to spike from 14,000 per week to more than 34,000. The graphic ads depict real people living with the after-effects of tobacco-related diseases. "Although they may be tough to watch, the ads show people living with real, painful consequences from smoking," Thomas R. Frieden, director of the CDC, said. Shane, whose last name was not given, is featured in one of the CDC's most prominent ads. As one of three smokers in the video, he gives tips on getting around with a surgical hole in your neck, necessary to treat the throat cancer he got from smoking. "Crouch, don't bend over," he advises with an electronic device that allows him to speak with a stoma. "You don't want to lose the food in your stomach." The ad is one of at least seven running on TV stations across the country. Others feature people who have had amputations after contracting a rare blood vessel disease, strokes and heart attacks from tobacco use. "For every one person who dies from tobacco, 20 are disabled or disfigured or have a disease that is unpleasant, painful, expensive," Frieden said. The campaign was launched March 19 and will run for at least 12 weeks. Ads appear on a number of platforms, including TV, billboards, magazines and newspapers. According to research from the CDC, approximately 45.3 million adults smoke in the U.S. A recent report from the Surgeon General's Office found nearly 1.5 million people under 18 start smoking each year. "Many young smokers believe that smoking will ‘just' kill them a few years earlier than they would normally die, and they don't care if they die at 70 instead of 80," Dr. Tim McAffee, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said. "But the reality is that smoking is the No. 1 cause of early death in middle age, and one of the biggest causes of early disability."