The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched a new round of ads from Tips From Former Smokers, its successful campaign that graphically shows the effects of smoking-related diseases. The ads come as new findings show that more than 1 in 5 Americans are regularly using some form of tobacco.
The new Tips from Former Smokers ads feature seven true stories of people suffering from smoking-related ailments. They highlight three health conditions not previously mentioned in the campaign: smoking while pregnant, gum disease and smoking with HIV/AIDS. The ads highlight illnesses and suffering caused by smoking “that people don’t commonly associate with cigarette use,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, such as teeth loss and strokes.
Launched in 2012, the Tips From Former Smokers campaign has helped hundreds of thousands of people quit smoking and dramatically increased calls to a national quit line. The new round of ads, released July 7, will run for nine weeks on English- and Spanish-language television, radio, billboards and online.
“These new ads are powerful,” Frieden said. “Smokers have told us these ads help them quit by showing what it’s like to live every day with a disability and disfigurement from smoking.”
The ads were released in the wake of new data from CDC’s National Adult Tobacco Survey, which reported that about 21 percent of U.S. adults use tobacco every day or some days. Of those, about 73 percent use at least one tobacco product a day.
The study found also that tobacco use is higher among men; young adults; Americans living in the Midwest or South; people with less education and income; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults.
“It is unacceptable that one in five U.S. adults — 50 million people — use a tobacco product every day or some days, the vast majority of them smoking cigarettes,” Vince Willmore, vice president for communications at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told The Nation’s Health.
The new ads are aimed at reducing those numbers and preventing related illnesses. Among the new faces in the CDC ad campaign is Brian, whose life was seriously threatened by HIV/AIDS complications. After leaving the hospital following treatment, he felt “invincible” and that he had conquered AIDS. However, he continued to smoke. At age 43, Brian had a stroke. Smoking, in combination with HIV, led to clogged blood vessels that resulted in surgery on a neck artery, a blood clot in his lung and ultimately a stroke.
“Having HIV is a part of your life until you die, but smoking is something you have control over,” Brian said in his two-minute ad. “Taking every advantage you have to stop smoking is going to save you.”
The CDC ads also feature Rose, a woman diagnosed with lung cancer at age 58 as a result of smoking. Lung cancer kills almost twice as many women as any other cancer, unbeknownst to most women, Paul Billings, senior vice president for advocacy and education at the American Lung Association, told The Nation’s Health. Shortly before the new CDC ads were released, the association launched its new Lung Force campaign, which rallies women in the fight against lung cancer.
The new round of the CDC campaign also features ads from Terrie Hall, the most well-known face of the ads, who died from cancer last year. About 480,000 Americans die from smoking each year, and 16 million people in the U.S. have a smoking-related disease, according to CDC.
To view the new ads, visit CDC’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/CDCStreamingHealth. More information about the campaign is available at www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/about.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
