Department of Health NHS Smokefree: A new approach to an old problem
Andy NairnDare
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Conventional wisdom had it that smokers needed to be scared into submission, through increasingly terrifying health messages. But we realised that this approach was becoming less and less effective. We therefore set off to find something new to say about one of society’s oldest ills.
Our strategic leap was to shift the focus from the physical harm to the smoker, to the emotional upset caused to the smoker’s family. This threat was both more motivating and harder to deny.
Our creative leap was...