Anti-smoking ads really do help people to kick the habit, according to research published today.
Smokers in regions where anti-smoking ads were broadcast were more than 50% more likely to succeed in giving up than those in areas where there was no campaign, according to a study by the journal Tobacco Control.
Researchers assessed the impact of an 18-month TV campaign conducted by the now-defunct Health Education Authority between 1992 and 1994. The ads, which starred John Cleese, were designed to motivate people to stop smoking and were broadcast in the Tyne Tees, Yorkshire and Granada regions.
The researchers then compared the rate of quitting smoking in those regions with the Central area, where the campaign was not broadcast. They found that in areas where the ads ran, 7.45% of smokers quit the habit, and only 3.3% of ex-smokers lapsed, while in the Central region 5% quit and 5% of ex-smokers relapsed over an 18-month period.
The net effect of the campaign, which cost £12.5 million, was to reduce adult smoking by about 1.2%. The researchers concluded that TV campaigns were "highly cost-effective" compared with the huge burden placed on the NHS by smoking-related diseases.
