14 DAY TRIAL // This past Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States announced that the grisly anti-smoking ads it ran in the spring of 2012 and 2013 had actually helped thousands of the country's smokers kick the habit.
These ads featured real ex-smokers who had all developed various medical complications as a result of their lighting up a tad too often.
More precisely, they showed individuals who had lost part of their lungs and even their limbs to smoking. Others had suffered paralysis, stroke and heart attacks.
The CDC argues that, according to recent investigations, the ads convinced some 1.6 million Americans to try to put their smoking days behind them.
Of these, about 100,000 people are believed to have succeeded in their endeavor, USA Today reports.
The organization bases its claims concerning the effectiveness of these ads on data collected while surveying 3,051 smokers and 2,220 non-smokers.
These people were interviewed both before and after the first series of ads ran, the same source tells us.
About 75% of them were able to recollect seeing at least one Tips from Former Smokers ad during the second round of interviews.
The researchers who conducted the interviews say that the ads translate into about 12% more attempts to quit on the part of the smokers. Of these, 6% are estimated to have led to a long-term success.
Interestingly enough, the ads were also found to have upped the number of non-smokers who took it upon themselves to warn their families about the health risks associated with smoking.
Lastly, the ads were found to have translated into a noteworthy increase (about 132%) in the number of people who turned to the 1-800-QUIT-NOW line for help.
In light of these findings, the CDC wishes to roll out yet another series of anti-smoking ads in the spring of 2014.
Tim McAfee, the current director of CDC's Office on Smoking and Health explains that, since gruesome ads are the only ones that appear to do the trick, the organization has no choice except continue to run them.
“I wish we could make upbeat, happy ads, but that's not what smokers said would motivate them to quit,” he reportedly said in a statement.