First graphic anti-tobacco campaign tees off

Islamabad
Featuring a powerful public service announcement (PSA) that says ‘Tobacco Is Hollowing You Out,’ Pakistan’s first national mass media campaign that focuses on the health harms of tobacco by graphically highlighting the damage that tobacco causes to nearly every vital organ and tissue of the human body teed off here on Friday, with technical and financial support of the World Lung Foundation (WLF).
The 30-second PSA will be broadcast on national TV channels to run during November. The PSA is designed to divert tobacco users’ thoughts about quitting into active quit attempts by showing the real health harms of tobacco use. It opens with the silhouette of a man smoking a bidi/cigarette and goes on to show the health harms of his habit, with images of a real human heart beating progressively faster, a healthy lung turning black, a cancerous mouth, rotting teeth, a cancerous throat, and clogged arteries that can cause stroke. The PSA ends with the message ‘Tobacco Kills – Quit Today!’ The concept was originally developed by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, extensively pre-tested, and used effectively in Mexico, Russia, Ukraine, and Vietnam, among other countries.
Additionally, 30,000 posters will be distributed through health centres and schools across Pakistan. The communication campaign will be implemented in collaboration with Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (MoH).
Speaking at the launching ceremony, the deputy director of MoH Dr. Samra Mazhar thanked WLF for supporting the Ministry in launching the unique campaign. “This campaign will bring our country in line with other countries that are showing young people the truth about tobacco. The message in the campaign is clear. It encourages smokers and other tobacco users to seriously consider their tobacco use and quit today!” she maintained.
The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) Pakistan 2014 found that 31.8 per cent of adult men and 5.8 per cent of women use tobacco in any form; 22.2 per cent of men and 2.1 per cent of women currently smoke tobacco. While nearly 88 per cent of smokers believe that smoking causes serious illness, only a quarter (24.7 per cent) had tried to quit in the past year and only 22.3 per cent planned to or were thinking about quitting. According to the Tobacco Atlas, tobacco use is the cause of 12.2 per cent of deaths among men and 4.5 per cent of deaths among women, killing over 2,000 Pakistanis every week.
Sandra Mullin, senior vice president, policy and communications, WLF commented, “The recent GATS report confirmed that smokers in Pakistan are aware that smoking causes harm, but too few are translating this into an intention to quit. Graphic campaigns like ‘Tobacco Is Hollowing You Out’ show the specific harms of tobacco use in a powerful way that helps to encourage smoking cessation and deter youth from starting to smoke tobacco. In fact, a similar campaign in another country encouraged more than 7 million tobacco users to make a quit attempt,” she shared.
Sandra said, WLF is delighted to have supported the design and implementation of this campaign and it trusts that it will start to create much greater awareness and debate around the harms of tobacco, in advance of the implementation of large new graphic health warnings on tobacco packs. “Real synergies will be achieved and lives saved by using anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and graphic warnings on tobacco packaging – countering misinformation from the tobacco industry, raising awareness of the actual harms of tobacco across the population, deterring youth from initiating smoking and encouraging smokers to quit. With concerted government action, Pakistan can combat the growing tobacco epidemic,” she pointed out.
Research has shown that mass media campaigns and large graphic pack warnings are among the most effective means to encourage people to stop using tobacco. Hard-hitting campaigns and images can compel tobacco users to quit, increase knowledge of the health risks of tobacco use, and promote behavior change in both smokers and non-smokers. They are featured in the World Health Organization’s MPOWER strategies to reduce tobacco consumption. MPOWER strategies are endorsed and promoted by the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, of which WLF is a principal partner.