There’s More Than One Way To Stop A Smoker

Quitting smoking is one of the toughest things a person will ever do. It’s menacing, daunting and downright scary. So does advertising aiming to help people quit smoking have to be the same?Well that’s one way to do it. The CDC cites the “Tips From Former Smokers” in their best practices on the subject. And if you’ve ever seen any of those ads, you know they’re pretty graphic. Change the channel graphic.

When the Wyoming Department of Health asked us to promote their QuitLine, we chose to do it differently. The truth is, we didn’t need to scare people into quitting. 66% of smokers try to quit every year already. We chose to position the QuitLine as the positive and empathetic experts that will make this quit your last.In 2013, we launched the “Free” campaign. We used humor to build awareness of the QuitLine and the number of free tools it offers. It was a success. Calls to the QuitLine were up an average of 92% during the months the ads ran.The next year we were at it again. This time talking directly to those smokers who knew they needed to quit. Reminding them that quitting smoking means more than reducing your risk for cancer. Or extending your lifespan. It means doing away with all the pain-in-the-ass problems that come with smoking. Once again, the results spoke for themselves. During the three month period the campaign was in market, unique visits to the QuitNet website were up 137% and enrollment in the program went up 42%.The CDC has their best practices. We have ours: Do the work. Find the insight. And create carefully crafted advertising that makes a difference.

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