HPB’s latest anti-smoking campaign

I’m sure that most people have caught the newest anti-smoking advertisement to be played on television here in Singapore. It depicts a smoker suffering from oral cancer. She tearfully tells of her plight, her regrets – barely able to speak really properly.

The Health Promotion Board (HPB) said that the anti-smoking campaign is meant to shock (as usual) and claim that this tactic is working – citing increases of callers to their QuitLine rising by about 5 times.

I must say that I was not the least bit shocked by the advertisement. What I was shocked to discover (from a Channel News Asia online article) was that the cancer “victim” in the advertisement was an actress! I fail to see how successful the campaign is going to be now that this has (or will soon become) common knowledge. This is their first fatal mistake.

In addition, I always feel that such campaigns are always destined for failure and are therefore a complete waste of time and money. They are obviously thought of by non-smokers who have no idea what goes on in a smoker’s psyche. As such, at best, they may be able to prevent children form taking up smoking (although I severely doubt it) and may also help reaffirm existing non-smokers current convictions and resolve not to pick up the habit. But getting smokers to quit is something completely different.

Just like promiscuous teenagers (and adults), nobody thinks that they will either get pregnant or HIV/AIDS. It just simply wouldn’t happen to them. Would advertisements depicting sufferers of AIDS and other STDs be likely to curb those raging hormones? I seriously doubt it.

At the end of the day, it is a personal choice (and for many people, an addiction). Smokers don’t really need to be told the dangers of smoking. We all are familiar with the fact that smoking may cause lung, throat, and probably other types of cancer. We also know that smoking may cause infertility and perhaps ED (impotence & erectile dysfunction – a big deal for us guys! All of us would definitely be concerned!)

Apart from being doomed from the start because they fail to understand why people smoke and how best to help them quit, there is the irony of the government not really wanting smokers to quit (perhaps this is why the prevailing method is still “shock”). Afterall, the government collects approximately S$7.2 billion in cigarette tax revenue yearly (that’s quite a lot of money indeed!) Imagine what kind of impact it would have to the economy if the sale of cigarettes are banned (afterall that is yet another method of getting people to quit smoking!)

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UPDATE: 30 March 2007
Singapore to warn viewers of graphic anti-smoking TV ads

This article was posted on AsiaOne today. It says that:

"The Health Promotion Board has received feedback that our advertisement may be too disturbing to some children," the board's chief executive, Lam Pin Woon, wrote in an open letter published Thursday in The Straits Times newspaper.

The board said the three-month campaign that began March 20 will continue, but the ads will now only be shown after 8 p.m local time and will be preceded by a message warning viewers of the graphic content.