The strategy

The Department of Health knew it couldn’t use familiar techniques to motivate smokers who had previously dismissed tobacco control messages.

Instead, it focused on a hard hitting depiction of the problem of smoking from a smoker’s point of view and focused on it as an addiction – this was the first time this approach had been taken in the UK.

By depicting addiction and the cigarette as the enemy, the Department of Health was able to take a hard-hitting approach without alienating the smoker. It showed smokers how serious their addiction was, prompting them to take action.

The creative

The adverts re-positioned the image of smokers, stripping away the glamour of the smoker as outsider and showing a story that talks about smoking as smokers experience it in the here and now, rather than the effects of smoking that they might experience some time in the future

Ads showed raw images of smokers literally ‘hooked’ on fish hooks. The TV ad depicted smokers being physically hooked and dragged around – showing that smokers don’t always have the power to do what they want to do.

The TV ads also showed a positive side – the same people who had been hooked, later unhook themselves.

The results

• One of the most famous campaigns of 2007 with 90% awareness among smokers
• This campaign drove the highest ever volume of response from any anti-smoking campaign the Department of Health had run previously. 746,155 smokers interacted with the campaign through web, text, phone or red button – over 100% more than any previous campaign.

Media

• TV
• Radio
• Press
• Outdoor
• Posters
• PR

Awards

2008 Winner of Marketing Week: Marketing Effectiveness, Best Public Sector campaign of the Year

2008 Winner of Marketing Week: Marketing Effectiveness, Best Campaign of the Year