Do the anti-smoking ads work?

The current anti-smoking campaign with the cigarettes full of lard is truly disgusting. But do you think it's a waste of time? Will it actually affect anybody's decision to smoke or not?

I agree! the lard dripping cigs ad, bit on the gross side, but remarkably enough I still went out and bought a packet of fags (still seething cos I dropped a brand new pack of 20s somewhere)

To be honest giving up cigs is not about patches and gum or any other little devices its mainly about willpower and you have to really want to give up.

No adverts about gungy arteries and people with lung cancer are going to really stop me. I knew about all the risks before I started smoking and my dad is a 40 a day man. I only smoke about 10 in a week so not quite at his level yet...but hopefully dont intend to get that bad! (but then neither did he!)

When I feel the need to stop I will do as I stopped a while ago for a good year but started again *bad girl* and no shock tactic adverts are really going to persuade me either way.

I just flick the channel or minimise my TV window if that advert comes on.

I smoke and it doesn't put me off. Waste of time if you ask me. I will give up smoking when I want and am ready to.

Smoking has a way of making you give up anyway. Terminally.

I wonder if anyone has any figures relating to deaths from smoking.

Most of the people I know have got ill after they have given up smoking.

The ads don't seem to bother my husband, nor do the ever larger statements on the packets.

Moon

The one warning on the fag packs i've seen, which made me chuckle, was something like "smoking makes your willy smaller".

Maybe some TV ads based on this theory would be quite successful!

well the signs on the fag packets and the ads did it for me, i wanted to quit anyway but they pushed me to doin it for defo. thay are awful, i cant watch em cos theyre gross but they work. its been a month now, cold turkey! the only way to do it i think.

god i feel so much better for it aswell! its amazing.gotta warn u though, the awful stuff i was coughing up for about 2 weeks when i stopped. I was so ill. but feel ten times better for it now.

linds

I think it helps non smokers stay that way!

In a burst of irony, I'm cutting back on the level of fatty and junk foods I'm eating because that fatty stuff has to come from somewhere right...

Never smoked in my life but I could almost hear National Heart Foundation screaming blue murder that the anti-smoking lobby used that idea before they could...

Because it has been such a success in Canada I believe, there has been thought that as well as the warnings...now in bigger print to further impress upon you the implications of your habit...they are going to put pictures of diseased organs...and no I dont mean Whirlitzers ...onto the packs to attempt to put people off smoking.

Somehow I cant see it making much of a difference. As a race we are blessed with ignorance, we'll take one look at the pictures and think, "ah that'll never happen to me".

In my experience people give up smoking either

a. because they want to, you cant force someone to give up, it doesnt work. trust me I know!

b. close to deaths door, in which case they only continue to smoke cos they're nearly on the way out anyway!

Originally posted by Mosherchik

I only smoke about 10 in a week

So the last Forum do must have lasted 2 weeks then

As an ex-smoker no tv ads stopped me from smoking and never would. It was holding a new life in my arms (ah) and realising that this little being was 100% dependent on me that made all the difference. I wanted to be around to see my kids grow up and hopefully giving up smoking would give me a better chance of this.

The ads may act as a deterrent for stopping people from starting though.