Cancer and lung disease victims telling their own harrowing stories
of how smoking destroyed their lives are being featured in a new
Government TV campaign to convince young people that cigarettes are
’uncool’.
Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO has produced the films, part of a pounds 2.5
million initiative that attempts to shatter the belief of many 16- to
2l-year-olds that they can smoke while young and give up without risking
damage to their health in later life.
Such testimony is contradicted by three relatively young people
suffering from smoking-related diseases. They include Tracey Cotton, 36,
a mother of two, who started smoking at 13 and now suffers from lung
cancer and a brain tumour, and Sylvestor Khokar, 32, whose smoking habit
caused him to have three heart attacks last year.
Another victim, David Vaughan, 50, a bronchitis and emphysema sufferer,
says: ’Fifty per cent of my lungs don’t work any more and each day that
goes by the other half is deteriorating.’
Peter Souter, AMV’s creative director and his art director, Paul
Brazier, devised the films, which are a response to research showing
that almost two out of three school pupils who smoke think they are no
more likely to get lung cancer than others of their own age. The ads
were directed by David Garfath for Paul Weiland Films.
Meanwhile, the Government is facing criticism from Labour MPs over its
decision to exempt direct marketing from the European Union ban on
tobacco promotion.
After weeks of confusion over whether direct mail would be outlawed,
Whitehall sources confirmed this week that ministers wanted a new
voluntary agreement with the tobacco industry. (Campaign, 7
November).
Labour MPs will now urge ministers to change their mind and hit direct
mail. Kevin Barron, Labour chairman of the all party Commons committee
on smoking and health, said: ’I believe we should have comprehensive
legislation that stops the promotion of tobacco products full stop.’
