CDC’s 2013 Tips from Former Smokers Ad Campaign Initiative Encourages Smokers to ‘Talk With Your Doctor’!
Dear <<First Name>>,
As you know, in April 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a continuation of its groundbreaking national tobacco education campaign to increase awareness about the negative health effects caused by smoking and secondhand smoke exposure and to encourage smokers to quit. The campaign, Tips From Former Smokers, features former smokers who have experienced smoking-related diseases at a relatively young age. The ads, which first aired in 2012, have been highly effective in motivating smokers to quit, with calls to the toll-free 1-800-QUIT-NOW quitline (1-800-784-8669) more than doubling compared with the same 12-week period in 2011.
As part of the this year’s Tips campaign, CDC has partnered with five medical societies (AMA, AAFP, AAP, ACP and ACOG) to support a new initiative called “Talk With Your Doctor,” which encourages smokers to talk with their health care providers about quitting. From May 27 th through June 2 nd, select Tips From Former Smokers television ads as well as digital and online ads will feature the following tagline: “You Can Quit. Talk With Your Doctor for Help.” The goal of this initiative is to engage health care providers and encourage them to use the Tips campaign as an opportunity to talk with their patients who smoke about quitting. The initiative can also serve as a reminder for smokers to talk with their health care providers about effective methods to help them quit.
"Physicians play an important role in helping patients take steps to improve their health,” said Tim McAfee, MD, MPH, director of the Office on Smoking and Health at CDC, and a primary care physician. “Patients with tobacco dependence should be identified and treated in the same way that patients with diabetes, hypertension, or other health issues are identified and treated. We hope that this initiative provides a conversation starter for physicians to proactively talk with their patients about how they can quit smoking.”
For more information about the campaign, visit www.cdc.gov/tips. For health care provider resources on how to talk with their patients about smoking, go to www.cdc.gov/tips/hcp/.
|