New CDC Ad Campaign Targets Smoking Cessation

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The CDC’s campaign Tips From Former Smokers (Tips) returned again earlier this month. As part of the campaign, there are seven new featured faces who shared stories about how cigarette smoking and smoking-related diseases have negatively impacted their lives, many of which included messaging about the harms of menthol cigarettes—something tobacco companies add to make their products more appealing. Menthol in cigarettes can make it easier to start smoking and harder to quit.¹ The Tips campaign began in 2012 as the first national campaign sponsored and funded by a federal agency with the goal of educating the public about the harmful effects of smoking and encouraging quitting. The commercials in the Tips campaign show how smoking-related illnesses have forever changed the lives of everyday people.²

Tips ads will run nationally on broadcast and cable TV, and on digital and social media channels. Additional ads will be placed to reach specific audiences including people who are African American, American Indian, Alaska Native, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders, LGBTQ+, and deaf or hard-of-hearing.¹ The series is part of a broader effort to combat smoking in groups that are more likely to light up: young people, racial and ethnic minority groups, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with a low income, and people with mental health conditions. Participant Angie P. smoked for 26 years after she started to cope with the fear of being accepted by her peers after coming out. In a CDC press release, she said that she hopes sharing her own story will help members of the LGBTQ+ community love themselves and kick the habit for good.

Like in the past, you can click through each participant’s or family’s story of living with smoking-related diseases and disabilities, or what it’s like to care for someone who has one. Adding the seven from this year’s campaign, a total of 48 stories are available resources on the main campaign page. All of the stories are able to be filtered by participant, groups, and diseases and conditions. Each story participant speaks from personal experience and have agreed to share their stories to send a single, powerful message: Quit smoking now. Or better yet—don’t ever start.² Some stories start as young as age 8, such as Texas-born Brian, and end at young ages, such as Bill, who quit at age 39 when his leg needed to be amputated due to poor circulation made worse by smoking. He eventually died at age 42 from heart disease.

Tips promotes additional resources, all free, to help adults quit smoking. Find them here.

References

1. CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers® Launches New Ads to Encourage People to Quit Smoking. CDC. News release. February 5, 2024. Accessed February 14, 2024.
   https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2024/p0505-smokers-tips.html
2. CDC. Newsroom. Webpage. Updated February 5, 2024. Accessed February 14, 2024.
   https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/press/index.html