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The UK has launched a scary anti-cigarette advertisement
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
The UK Department of Health is trying to combat the pernicious addiction to smoking at all costs. That is why a new anti-smoking campaign has been launched, which may compete for the title of the most unpleasant and even disgusting in history.
Even today, when the fact that smoking causes irreparable harm to human health is trumpeted on all TV channels, talked about in TV programs and written about in magazines and newspapers, most smokers continue to believe that all the risks are exaggerated and the threats are far-fetched. And all this despite the fact that smoking is still the leading cause of premature death, which annually takes millions of human lives around the world. In the UK alone, this harmful addiction destroys about 100,000 lives annually.
Read also: Smoking: how to quit smoking?
The latest anti-cigarette advertising claims that every fifteen cigarettes smoked leads to cell mutations, which in turn increase the risk of developing cancer.
In the video we see a man leaving his house with a cup of coffee in his hand and greeting the morning by lighting a cigarette. With each new drag on the cigarette, a cancerous tumor grows. Frankly speaking, the picture is not the most pleasant, but most likely, this is what the UK Department of Health is hoping for. Maybe at least such scary and unpleasant videos will be able to touch smokers and make them think about what happens in the body when a person lights another cigarette.
The UK's chief medical and scientific adviser to the Department of Health, Professor Dame Sally Davies, says every cigarette is like Russian roulette, played recklessly by smokers.
Over the past few years, all anti-smoking campaigns have been less strict, but it seems the time has come to act decisively.
"This unflattering anti-smoking advert is designed to open the eyes of smokers to what they are doing to their own health," says Professor Davis. "People will see a man, a cigarette in his hand and what that cigarette does to a person. Most people know about the harm of smoking, but few people personalise it, few understand what is happening in their bodies when they take a drag. We hope this advert will show them what they don't see or don't want to see."
According to research, about two million people say they would like to quit their bad habit forever.
"We want smokers to finally understand that every pack of cigarettes increases the risk of cancer, and the fact that some people underestimate the harm caused by smoking is disturbing, because they are poisoning not only themselves, but also the people around them," comments Professor Davis. "Quitting smoking can be extremely difficult, but if a person does decide to do so, then negative advertising will only serve as additional motivation to take the first step and overcome all difficulties for the sake of themselves and their loved ones."
The presented video will be supplemented with social advertising on the streets.
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