Smoking kills

When we go for the movies, we wait and watch the story of  unfortunate ‘Mukesh,’ the unfortunate smoker who dies of lung cancer. And then there are is another advertisement or two about how smoking kills. And we often used to wonder whether the smoker did not know about these things and the effectiveness of showing this ad before a family enjoys a movie.

Well, apparently, these ads are proving to be effective. As per a survey conducted by Cancer Patients Aids Association (CPAA), covering 25 cinema halls across Mumbai, the survey showed that 84% agreed that anti-tobacco messages have a positive impact in helping a person quit tobacco. Almost 77% rated the quality of current message shown good. Another 68% said that such ads were a vital medium to raise awareness about the ill effects of tobacco. 40% said the messages will motivate tobacco users to kick the habit. Many people in the survey said that the ads were scary and some come to the theater late intentionally, to skip the ad. But then the ads come up after interval too, so they just cannot miss it even if they want to!  Some 50% of the tobacco users in the survey said that it will motivate them to quit while 75% youth admitted that they were motivated to not use tobacco after watching the messages.

Based on the findings of this survey, the CPAA feels that more ads need to be spread across all media, in a more aggressive manner.  And research has proven that use of mass media campaigns was the most effective tool to urge people to give up smoking.