Anti Smoking Campaign Essay

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Topic: Argumentive Essay: Are Anti-Smoking Ads Effective
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Date: 29th June, 2014
Introduction
Per the Center for Disease Control (2009), in the United States smoking of cigarettes is the leading cause of death that can be prevented (Lee, Cappella and Lerman 527). Considerable efforts are being employed to motivate smokers to quit, former smokers not to relapse, and the non-smokers not to start. Antismoking campaigns through advertisements have been used to conduct such campaigns and whereas on one end have been proven as effective, on the other end they have been seen to, in fact, promote smoking in various ways. This paper, therefore, provides a discussion of the successes of the impact (negative and positive) anti-smoking campaigns in the United States.
A week before Terrie Hall the notable face from CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers campaign died, the campaigners remarked on how her story with cancer battles and other stories about her life inspired over 1 million Americans. Their leader reported that this was a number that they did not project (McGill 1). The fact that such an impact was made by only a single person, a single campaign, and one advert, indicates the immense power and impact that anti-smoking advertisements can have in promoting quitting (Mcgill 1).
This is evident since on August of the same year an announcement was made that the campaign through Hall’s advertisement inspired approximately 1.6 million people were inspired to quit. After her death from head and neck cancer that was attributed to smoking, according to The Lancet’s research, advertisements that included former smokers inspired about 200,000 individuals to quit and estimated that approximately 100,000 of them are likely to quit permanently (Mcgill 1).
According to The Lancet Study, Cigarette smoking takes the lives of approximately 440, 000 people in the United States alone. This is, in addition, to the $96 million spent on medical care costs (Mcgill 1). However, cheap and affordable campaigns and advertisements are effective in reducing the death toll due to smoking and consequently reducing the medical care costs that are related to the smoking. For example, the $54 million Tips From Former Smokers campaign.
Another survey that was conducted to determine the effectiveness of advertisements in addressing smoking revealed that 78% of the surveyed smokers reported having watched at least one of the advertisements. A follow up on the individual also revealed that there was an increase by 12% in these individuals’ attempts quit smoking (McGill 1). Moreover, due to the advertisements, the campaigns website () experienced an influx of over 500,000 new visitors in 12 weeks and a 132% increase in the hotline calls (1-800-QUIT-NOW). Only last year 150,000 additional calls were made, and website visits raised to 2.8 million a fact that can be attributed to the advertisements (McGill 1). Therefore, by focusing on the real issues regarding smoking through the provision of real stories from real people and emphasizing and demonstrating the suffering to the intended audience, anti-smoking campaigns act as strong motivators. They provide inspiration for individuals not to engage in the behavior as they are unable to interpret the complex statistical figures in other anti-smoking campaigns.
However, on the other hand, some studies done indicate that anti-smoke advertisements especially those having smoking cues undermines the self-efficacy, attitude, and intention regarding abstinence and quitting for former smokers and smokers ...