Tips From Former Smokers go largely unheeded

A $200 million federal anti-smoking campaign ‘Tips From Former Smokers’ was mostly a flop and did not greatly boost the number of non-smokers in the US, according to a story by Nick Tate for NewsMax.

Tate cited the findings of a new analysis published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine by San Diego State University public health researcher John W. Ayers, and a team of investigators at the Santa Fe Institute and University of Illinois Chicago.

The Tips campaign, which was produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was said to have included about a dozen commercials featuring a smoker who had suffered some frequently shocking debilitation as a result of tobacco use.

But the researchers concluded that the initiative had ‘fizzled more than it popped’ in respect of getting smokers to quit. The findings were based on analyses of Internet searches during the campaign for information on how to quit smoking.

The full story is at: http://www.newsmax.com/Health/Health-News/cdc-smoking-campaign-tip/2015/05/19/id/645473/.