Let's Talk About Quitting (2007 to 2010)
In 2007 Make Smoking History developed a new press campaign with a different focus. Instead of talking about the health effects of smoking, the advertising focused on other topics that smokers find relevant to their experience, such as the complexities of smoking addiction as well as common fears and concerns around quitting. The advertisements aimed to reassure smokers that they can quit and promoted local support services.
Read the newspaper advertisements
- Amazing but true (pdf 233kb) focused on the sweeteners and flavourings added to cigarettes that make them more palatable and more addictive.
- If quitting leaves a hole in your life, fill it with something else (pdf 634kb) looked at how cigarettes can play very different roles in a smoker’s life and that there are many positive and useful strategies that smokers can use to fill the gap left by quitting.
- How cigarettes poison a smoker’s mind (pdf 253kb) looked at how the mind plays a powerful role in a person’s smoking and how thought patterns can be a barrier to quitting or can be used in a positive way to assist quitting.
- How to kill your best friend (pdf 248kb) explored how cigarettes are often regarded as a friend and how people may feel a sense of loss when they quit.
- An hour in the life of a smoker (pdf 649kb) focused on nicotine and reassured the smoker that there are strategies that will assist them to ride out cravings when they quit.
- The beer without a cigarette! (A horror story with a happy ending) (pdf 506kb) explored common associations with smoking and the associated fears about quitting.
- What is smoking really costing you? (pdf 613kb) focused the high cost of cigarettes and how this can often be a source of resentment and guilt for smokers on the verge of quitting, but how savings from quitting can act as a great motivator for staying on track.
- The great mind trick (pdf 242kb) explored nicotine addiction and how smokers are ‘tricked’ into thinking that life won’t be the same without cigarettes.
- There are better ways to relieve stress (pdf 313kb) acknowledged that smokers often use cigarettes to deal with stressful situations and offered alternatives.
Since 2007 the ‘Let’s Talk About Quitting’ series has been used to complement many other television campaigns, including:
