For the first time ever QUIT messages will appear on Sydney streets to encourage smokers on their way to work, and during ‘smoko’ breaks, to call the Quitline on 131 848 for help.

“Next week is QUIT week and we want smokers to know that there is a fantastic team of counsellors only a telephone call away offering round the clock advice to smokers who want to kick the habit”, said Anne Jones, of ASH Australia.

“Help is important as most smokers know their addiction is deadly and costly but they find it hard to give up on their own – particularly if friends and family smoke”.

The Quit messages, which will only last a few days, have been created in chalk on the pavement outside St James train station in the centre of Sydney with the help of an advertising agency (Saatchi & Saatchi who developed the campaign for ASH as a community service in lead up to Quit week).

To stir up a response from the crowd, a “gas chamber chair” is part of the exhibit with the warning, “Please be seated while you smoke – cigarettes contain hydrogen cyanide, the same chemical used in gas chambers. Call the Quitline 131 848”.

"The strength of the idea rests on the relationship between the message and the media. As smokers are forced out of their offices onto the footpath to smoke they end up smoking the very thing they're standing on - tar. We found that an extraordinary fact." said Jamie Clift, Group Account Director at Saatchi & Saatchi.

“Governments spend very little money on quit campaigns despite evidence showing that lower smoking rates can slash cancer and heart disease rates”, said Anne Jones.

“Like today’s adverts, we are asking governments to support more frequent and creative ways of getting the message out to smokers that expert help is available from the Quitline, doctors and pharmacists”, said ASH.

For further comment contact:
Anne Jones, Chief Executive on mobile 0417 227879 or (02) 93341876
Email: annej@ashaust.org.au

Page last updated on 2/11/2001