They shock, but do these ads bother us?

They shock, but do these ads bother us?

From Adelaide Now: SHOCK tactics on TV are the mainstay of public warning advertising campaigns – but do they work? FROM a smoky haze, the Grim Reaper emerges – scythe in one hand, bowling ball in the other. He takes aim at his human targets at the end of the alley and powers the missile at them…………..more.
My Comment:

In my opinion I think the quit smoking shock ads are more about getting short term results for the the Quitline. You see, if they get the calls just after that advert then it is like they are registering hits and can measure the results of the ad. This then justifies their whole approach and gets them more money to scare people into calling again. But I don’t think that the long term results can be measured this way. Getting someone to call verses getting them to quit smoking are two different things. So it makes sense for them to make the ads as shocking as possible to register as many calls as possible while the smokers are scared.

My argument to Quit has been to combine their negative campaigns with a positive, supportive campaign like the Quitober Challenge as a trial and see what sort of results we could get. Their response is that it needs to be tested first. Well we have smokers dying to quit so I say lets try it on them now not wait till some researcher is paid $200k to work out over 3 years that using the carrot and stick does work!

Canada Being Much More Supportive of Smokers Quitting than Australia

National Non-Smoking Week issues options, incentives to quit

Good on you Canada for taking such a positive stand and being more supportive to smokers rather than, as mentioned being "No longer purveyors of authoritative lectures or graphic guilt trips". Here in Australia the Quitline still persists in trying to only scare smokers into quitting with little in the way of being openly supportive other than showing a phone number after their lecture. I am running two positive awareness campaigns here in Australia called the Quitober Challenge and the QuitMay Challenge designed for employers to sponsor their staff to quit smoking. This year employers will be able to sponsor their staff’s partners to quit also. Anyway, with messages like yours in Canada, hopefully our governments and NGOs will finally get the message that smokers are adults and need to treated as such.

Confusing Messages from Hume City News Papers and Quit Victoria

Hume Leader “Hume resists smoke-free outdoors” 21 Jan

Macedon Ranges Weekly "Hume reacts to smoking toll" 18 Jan

Can you spot the difference? If you read these two stories one would think that they are telling two completely different stories.

I think someone has gotten their wires crossed somewhere.

Anyway, outdoor smoking bans or no outdoor smoking bans, I am much more interested that the Hume City Council has already participated in last year’s Quitober Challenge where they sponsored their staff that smoke to quit during October and beyond. Now I got the good news that the City of Hume will also be participating in this year’s QuitMay Challenge. So it looks like the Hume Council is coming to grips with whatever issues that are in its municipality. In fact, so far the Hume City Council is the only council in Australia that has supported such a positive campaign for smokers to quit, which is a lot more than I can say about Quit Victoria or the Victorian government. Good on you Hume!