“After you have a lung removed, take short breaths.” “Allow extra time to put on your legs.” “Be careful not to cut your stoma while shaving.”
These are all tips from real people, whose stories of living with the effects of smoking-related diseases are featured in the groundbreaking “Tips from Former Smokers” ad campaign. The ads first appeared in select cities around the country earlier this year and have generated 200,000 additional calls to 1-800-QUITNOW, a portal that links callers to their state quit lines.
The television ads will appear in the Lawrence area starting July 30 on Knology cable and will direct viewers to the Kansas Tobacco Quitline, ksquit.org. Tobacco settlement dollars paid to air the $14,000 campaign, which will end Oct. 28.
Most people have a loved one whose life has been affected by smoking. Health Department Director Dan Partridge’s mother started smoking in 1942 because she wanted the ‘smoke break’ everyone else was taking.
“It took her 43 years to break her addiction, which began as a desire to fit in to the social conventions of the time,” he said. “We have a come a long way since 1942, but we still battle the message that smoking is ‘cool.’ This ad campaign is intended to help counter that perception.”
Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, killing more than 1,200 Americans every day. About 8.6 million Americans are living with a smoking-related disease and each day, more than 1,000 youth age 18 and younger become smokers. Smoking-related diseases cost Americans $96 billion a year in direct health care expenses — a substantial portion of which come in the form of taxpayer-supported payments.
For more information on the campaign, including profiles of the former smokers, other campaign resources and links to the ads, visit www.cdc.gov/Quitting/Tips.
Shawn, 51 of Washington state was diagnosed with throat cancer at age 46. He was in his mid-forties when a chronic cough and laryngitis turned out to be throat cancer. He endured 38 radiation treatments and hours at the doctor's office and finally quit smoking—but doctors were unable to save his larynx. He now has a stoma (opening) that allows him to breathe and a laryngeal implant that allows him to speak. by Lisa Horn
Tagged: Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, tobacco use, tobacco prevention, Kansas quit line, anti-smoking, help quitting
Comments
jj14 10 months ago
These TV ads have been running for months...nothing new here
ldchealth 10 months ago
Hi, jj14, just to clarify: the ads ran in the Kansas City market earlier this year (KC broadcast stations), but have not appeared on Lawrence cable channels.
parrothead8 10 months ago
I live in Lawrence, and I've been seeing them for months on channels that are part of my cable package.
ldchealth 9 months, 4 weeks ago
That would be correct since Kansas City (and Topeka) broadcast stations are part of the local cable lineup.
mikekt 10 months ago
They are a good ideas! Cheeper than paying to hospitalize people
Smoking is a flat out addiction......and it's costly to the user and to society.
There are cheaper ways to die because of the high cost to the user & society, thru Medicare, Medicaid & Private Insurance, to pay for a slow lingering medical death from numerous lung diseases, general vascular diseases, cancers of all sorts,.....to to mention promoting tooth decay that keeps the user broke & in the dentist office loosing teeth.
There are those who profit legally by addicting other people to life destroying products. Just remember that some deaths happen in slow motion over many years of using tobacco .....and or alcohol.....or both......& somebody is getting paid well to help them to get off the face of this earth
patkindle 10 months ago
most smokers are looking for the "magic Pill" and would quit asap if the experts would spend their money on a painless way to quit, rather than on huge advertising campaigns
the only folks it helps is the ad agencies and media with more advertisng income or allowances for running psa's
tanzer 10 months ago
I thought research showed that scare tactic social marketing isn't very effective?? Anyone hear anything new/different on that front?
charliebryan 10 months ago
CDC based the "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign on research, as indicated in the excerpt below, taken from http://www.cdc.gov/Features/TobaccoEducationCampaign/.
"Scientific evidence indicates that hard-hitting, graphic, and emotionally impactful campaigns work. The most effective smoking-cessation advertisements depict the health risks and emotional impact of long-term tobacco use, encourage smokers to quit, and provide information on how to quit."
Further evidence of success with the "Tips From Former Smokers" campaign is found in two excerpts, below, from a recent CDC media release, available at http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2012/p0614_smoking_quitlines.html.
"CDC anticipates some 50,000 smokers will end their addiction as a result of the ad campaign. It is estimated this will result in an annual savings of approximately $70 million dollars in medical and productivity costs."
"These initial results suggest that the campaign will help even more people quit than we had hoped, exceeding our already high expectations," said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. "More than two thirds of all smokers want to quit. People who smoke die sooner and live sicker. This campaign is saving lives and saving money."
tanaumaga 10 months ago
Now let's put the aggressive drunk driving commercials that are on local and cable t.v. in other parts of the world...
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