• 3/22/2007
  • Berlin, Germany
  • staff
  • Jurnalo (jurnalo.com)

A diseased tongue fills the television screen before the camera depicts decaying teeth and sore lips in a new drive launched on Wednesday to shock smokers in Singapore into quitting.
After years of less gruesome campaigns against smoking, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) said that the 30-second advertisement centres around frightening images to frighten smokers into giving up the habit.

“Smoking causes oral cancer,” says the woman in the ad as her eyes well up with tears. “Quitting is hard, but not quitting is harder. ”

The drive, depicting smoking-related mouth and throat cancers, is being aired in English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

Print versions, inspired by a programme last year in Australia, are set to appear in newspaper and billboards.

The hard-hitting images are necessary because most smokers are deep into the habit, HPB deputy director Choo Lin told The Straits Times.

Posters carrying tips on quitting will also be displayed in clinics, offices, entertainment and eating outlets. The second phase of the campaign, beginning May 1 and ending on World No-Tobacco-Day on May 30, highlights testimonials from smokers who have stopped.

Choo told the newspaper that the use of graphic pictures introduced in 2004 on cigarette packs has helped deter smokers.

A recent survey showed that 47 per cent of respondents cut the number of cigarettes they were smoking after seeing the pictures of diseased organs, and 25 per cent said they were motived to quit.

One in two smokers dies of smoking-related diseases, the report said.