The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have on Thursday unveiled a new USD 54 million (EUR 41 million) graphic anti-smoking campaign.
The campaign called "Tips from Former Smokers" begins on Monday. It will be seen on billboards and print, radio and TV ads that show people whose smoking resulted in heart surgery, a tracheotomy, lost limbs or paralysis.
“Graphic, hard-hitting ads like this work. They help smokers quit. There is very clear scientific evidence for that,” said Thomas R. Frieden, director of the CDC which runs the three-month-campaign.
The government will pay regular advertising rates, but networks have agreed to provide USD 1.00 worth of free time for every USD 3.00 worth bought, acording to the Washington Post. In all, there will be eight TV spots (one in Spanish); seven radio spots, seven print ads, and five billboard and bus-shelter ads, as well as online and mobile-phone messages.
The campaign is the largest and starkest anti-smoking push by the CDC as well as its first national advertising effort. The agency is hoping the spots will persuade as many as 50,000 Americans to stop smoking.
The launch of the campaign comes weeks after a federal judge blocked the requirement that tobacco companies put the graphic health warnings on their packages, saying it was unconstitutional. (pi)