WASHINGTON — They are graphic and sometimes hard to take, but research shows those gritty anti-smoking ads on TV are having a big impact.
Researchers at the University of North Dakota showed six of the ads to 144 men and women ages 18 to 33. They found that the three advertisements that elicited the highest ratings of fear and disgust were also rated the most effective.
Among the ads were two produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published the study results on its website. One of the public service announcements features a smoker who had a stroke and the teenage son who became her caregiver. As he gently washes the legs that no longer support her, she relates how smoking robbed her of her independence.
The other CDC ad is perhaps even more chilling: A woman with throat cancer removes the scarf covering her tracheotomy and in a raspy voice details how she began smoking as a teen, and even reached for a cigarette after the opening was placed in her neck.
Anti-smoking activists say they weren’t surprised by the study results.
Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says they demonstrate very clearly “that the best way to portray to a young smoker that they are seriously at risk is a graphic image — one that captures their imagination, one that gets under their skin, one that prompts them to think thoroughly about the actual risk.”
He says too many smokers underplay the risks, and as a result too many die, adding “very few smokers realize that is it like playing Russian roulette with three bullets and a gun.”
Each year smoking kills 440,000 people in United States, but there are indications that the government’s recent anti-smoking media campaign focused on the lives and words of real people injured by smoke may ultimately bring the death rate way down.
An article published last year in the medical journal The Lancet documented progress during the initial 2012 phase of the CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers Campaign.
The researchers cited in the Lancet said more than 200,000 Americans quit smoking during that time period, and it’s estimated that 100,000 will never smoke again. About 4.5 million nonsmokers referred others to quitting services mentioned in the ads, and an estimated 6 million nonsmokers talked to friends and family about the dangers of smoking.
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