Those graphic ads depicting a former smoker–who is now an amputee or had a tracheotomy–are compelling people to try to stop smoking. That’s according to a doubling of calls to the state’s tobacco quit line.
Dr. Michael Fiore of UW’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention says the ads showed, in a personal way, the danger and harm to families that smoking causes. Fiore says research shows of 100 smokers in Wisconsin who never quit, more than 50 will die from a disease related to their tobacco use.
Calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW went from averaging 160 a week to 323 a week during the ad campaign. The cash-strapped center was able to deal with the extra increase in calls due to some extra dollars from the CDC which sponsored the ads.