EC launches new Help TV ads against smoking

As part of its campaign ‘Help – for a life without tobacco’, the European Commission presented a new anti-smoking advert which will air from 15 January on 80 television channels in 22 languages across all 27 EU Member States. The new advertising campaign focuses on the negative health effects of passive smoking. The clip depicts a young adolescent experiencing breathing difficulties in her daily activities, and shows her watching her parents smoking in the living room.

European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said: “Every year, passive smoking kills 19,000 Europeans who don’t smoke. This latest advertising campaign aims to remind smokers that their habit harms their children’s health as well as their own.” The television campaign ties in with an e-mail and web based campaign where smokers can get help and advice to stick to their new year’s resolution to quit smoking. The Commission’s € 72 million Help campaign has now been running for nearly 2 years. In that time, market research shows that over 150 million Europeans have seen the adverts, including 55% of young people, and the approval rating among the target group of under 25s is 83%.

The Commission intends to publish a Green Paper on Smoke-Free Environments in early 2007 to launch a broad consultation process on the best way forward to tackle passive smoking in Europe. The advert can be viewed on the web site