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.
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More