PR News

A Fresh Look At Smoking

by Jennifer

The Statistics

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a report indicating that there is not a single country that fully implements key measures to prevent smoking. And only five percent of the world implements even one of the measures.

The report listed six strategies, nicknamed Mpower, which countries can implement to stop millions of premature deaths by the middle of this century:

• Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies
• Protect people from tobacco smoke
• Offer help to quit tobacco use
• Warn about the dangers of tobacco
• Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship
• Raise taxes on tobacco

Among the report’s other conclusions are that poor and middle-income countries collect 5,000 times as much in tax revenue from tobacco as they spend in fighting its use, and Uruguay does more than any other country to combat smoking.

The Plan

While the report does have interesting statistics, what’s even more intriguing is how the WHO presented its campaign. Instead of using the standard scary ads we’re all used to seeing from TRUTH and other anti-smoking campaigns, they’re going with pictures of happy children and using mottos like “fresh and alive.” According to a New York Times article, they’re using those tactics to catch the attention of government officials. The report even came with what appeared to be a pack of Mpower-brand cigarettes, with a cheerful blue bubbles logo and a mock warning on the box — which actually contained a pad and pens.

Will it work?

It can’t hurt to try something new. Obviously, the happy go-lucky cigarette ads promoting cigarettes are working, so maybe the same type of advertisement will work for anti-smoking. I’m just wondering if it’s worth the risk. With the rate at which people are becoming addicted to cigarettes in some places, do we have the time to try a new approach? What if people don’t read into the campaign and just continue associating happy feelings with cigarettes instead of with anti-smoking?

Permalink |  Save on del.ico.us

Commenting is closed for this article.