Could the UK handle the “Truth” campaign?
Apr 16th, 2007 by Simon
Saw this latest truth ad through adcritic.com…
I’ve always admired this campaign, because it involves kids in being against smoking rather than lecturing to them. And, I wonder whether we could do anything similar here - it’s one of the most successful campaigns in the US and one of the hard-fought battles of the UK. So why not try something bolder than the old shock tactics?
The last thing I remember here was that “fat oozing” ad… which was disgusting, but follows the old path of shock rather than understanding.
According to a BBC news report, this was a hugely successful campaign, but is 10,000 requests from 62,000 visits really success?
According to the National Centre for Social Research, reported on ASH, 24% of all adults in the UK smoked in 2005. In the same report, we see that 20% of 15 year-olds smoke, whereas a massive 32% of 20-24 year-olds are smokers. Figures are dropping at a rate of about 0.4% a year.
Compare that to the US… 20.9% of general population are smokers in 2004, with 23.6% of 18-24 year-olds smoking.
Smoking amongst all adults has been dropping at a rate of about 0.8% per year (av. for P2Y)… DOUBLE that of the UK.
But then look at this…
Unless I’m very wrong, that’s smoking among younger age groups dropping at over 15% between 1997 and 2003 - and, that’s an absolute figure of 15%, not relative - so, relatively, it’s down just over 40%.
All figures from American Lung Association Site.