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Nation’s sensibilities go up in smoke

Posted in Advertising, Arif Durrani, Latest reporters' blogs April 30th, 2008 by Arif Durrani

Last year it was an ad designed to help the gay community, this year the most complained about advertising campaign in the UK came with the government’s attempt to help people stop smoking; sometimes it just doesn’t pay to care.

As someone who was trying to kick smoking at the time, successfully to date, I have to admit I found the ads by Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy really effective. ‘We’, the nicotine-stained collective, were all too used to hearing about the serious health implications of our nasty habit, and really didn’t need reminding once again about the daily cost to our purse strings.

So, with its firm focus on the addictive, controlling nature of smoking, this campaign commanded our attention from the outset. Yes, the images were hard-hitting. I remember one TV spot showing a woman ironing her clothes before having her lips hooked like a fish and being dragged by a wire out of the room. “The average smoker needs over 5,000 cigarettes a year,” said the voiceover, acutely capturing our daily plight in one word – “needs”.

And I wasn’t alone, according to the Department of Health. When the Hook campaign ran between January and February last year, nearly half a million smokers contacted the NHS for more information about quitting.

Unfortunately the ads proved too much for at least 774 people, who felt compelled to write to the advertising watchdog ASA and complain about its distressing content, especially for the sensitive children. Whether any of the complainants had ever visited a school playground recently and heard what children talk about, or seen the cartoons they watch, or the computer games they play, is unclear.

Regardless, the risk of scaring the little people with powerful anti-smoking imagery was deemed too great and the complaints were upheld by Lord (Chris) Smith’s outfit at the ASA. In a year that saw a record number of complaints, up eight per cent to 24,192, was there really nothing more worthwhile to rally against? Perhaps this campaign’s dubious accolade of receiving the most complaints is really just further proof that there’s still life in the old tobacco giants yet?  

To read the related news story click here.