More than twice as many people called a toll-free number to help them quit smoking a week after the launch of a $54 million ad campaign that shows graphic images of diseased smokers, federal health officials said Friday.
Calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW totaled more than 33,000 last week — the first week of the ad campaign. The phone line received less than 14,500 calls the week before.
It was the highest call volume ever seen in the seven-year history of the federally sponsored quit line, which routes callers to counseling and information about how to quit smoking.
Meanwhile, clicks to the www.smokefree.gov website, another government smoking cessation service, rose from about 20,000 to about 66,000. Those were the largest jumps in traffic that the phone line and website had ever seen.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention kicked off the 12-week ad campaign on March 19. It is the agency’s first national anti-smoking advertising effort and features people whose smoking resulted in heart surgery, laryngectomy, lost limbs or paralysis.
The CDC ads are more graphic than spots that have aired nationally before. Advocates have applauded the campaign, saying it’s important to jolt a weary public that has been listening to government warnings about the dangers of smoking for nearly 50 years.
It’s too early to assess how successful the campaign ultimately is at persuading current smokers to quit, and discouraging would-be smokers from starting. An analysis will be done after the campaign ends.
But the early results have delighted health officials. “This is just a rough indicator, but it’s a very encouraging one,” said CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden.
He noted the results are even more impressive because the quit line number is mentioned in fewer than half of the spots. What’s more, for every person who calls the line, many others try to quit on their own.
“This means tens of thousands of people are seeing the ads and thinking of quitting and trying to quit,” Frieden said.
Sean Baker Wins Marquee Feature Honor At DGA Awards For “Anora”
Sean Baker won the marquee feature prize at the 77th Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards on Saturday night (2/8) for Anora. This makes Baker the frontrunner to win the Best Director Oscar. Only eight times over the past 76 years has the DGA Award winner not gone on to win the Oscar. That happened most recently in 2020 when Sam Mendes won the DGA Award for 1917 while Bong Joon-ho scored the Oscar for Parasite. Baker topped a field of nominees which also included Jacque Audiard for Emilia Pรฉrez, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, and James Mangold for A Complete Unknown. Another DGA theatrical motion picture award--named after the late filmmaker Michael Apted in recognition of outstanding achievement by a first-time feature director went to RaMell Ross for Nickel Boys. On the TV side, winners included Frederick E.O. Toye who topped the dramatic series category for the โCrimson Skyโ episode of Shลgun; Lucia Aniello who scored the comedy series honor for the Hacks episode titled โBulletproofโ; Steven Zaillian for the limited series Ripley; and Liz Patrick for the variety series Saturday Night Live (โJohn Mulaney/Chappell Roanโ episode). The documentary winners were Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev for Porcelain War. Topping the commercials category was Andreas Nilsson of Biscuit Filmworks on the strength of spots for Apple, Andrex, Hennessy and Virgin Media (see separate story here). Judd Apatow served as emcee for the DGA Awards before an audience of more than... Read More