Ads Take New Approach to Anti-Smoking Campaign

Carole Mikita ReportingThe Utah Department of Health has launched a new ad campaign and wants to know if you recognize yourself in it.

Employees in the Tobacco Prevention Program are taking a different approach with the television ads, asking the question: "Are you missing moments in life because you're smoking?"

Called "slice-of-life vignettes," these new ads take a new approach to the state's anti-smoking campaign. Instead of focusing on diseases or even death that can happen as a result, the idea here is to make smokers ask themselves, 'Is that me?'

Lena Dibble, Tobacco Prevention Program: "Like the daily coughing or having to go out late at night to buy cigarettes if you've run out. Or just having to smoke outside away from people in the cold or in the heat. So, that's what we're trying to accomplish."

TV ad: "Honey, did you find one? My interview's in half an hour." "No, they all smell like smoke."

The next thing Dibble and her staff hope will happen is that people do recognize themselves and want to change. It has happened in the past. Utah is now the first state to reach the nation's Healthy People 2010 goals.

Lena Dibble: "Which means that our smoking rate in Utah is less than 12 percent. So that's a big achievement. And we've seen almost a 40 percent decrease in youth smoking since 1999, which is huge, which is very encouraging from us."

The new campaign also includes billboards, which take yet another approach-- giving up cigarettes makes you feel better, look better, and makes you much more kissable.

Lena Dibble: "The good news is, the more people try to quit, the more likely they are to be successful. So, we just tell people to keep on trying, trying something different. Get help, see what works for you and you can do it in the end."

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