Australia: Anti-smoking 'Sponge" ad squeezed again

It so successfully turned people off smoking in the 1980s, the tobacco lobby tried to have it banned.
Now, a revamped anti-smoking "sponge" advertisement is to hit TV screens again this weekend, with the New South Wales Government hoping it will be just as effective with a new generation of smokers.  WATCH

Anti-smoking 'Sponge" ad squeezed again - AAP
October 19, 2007

IT so successfully turned people off smoking in the 1980s, the tobacco lobby tried to have it banned.

Now, a revamped anti-smoking "sponge" advertisement is to hit TV screens again this weekend, with the New South Wales Government hoping it will be just as effective with a new generation of smokers.

The words and the imagery haven't changed since it last aired in the early 1990s.

The ad ends with the memorable image of tar being squeezed from a dirty sponge into an almost full beaker, illustrating how much tar a smoker's lungs absorb each year.

"Lungs are like sponges designed to soak up air," the voice-over says.

"But some people use their lungs to smoke up cigarette smoke.

"It's enough to make you sick, very sick."

The Minister Assisting the NSW Minister for Health (Cancer), Verity Firth, said Sponge was one of Australia's most memorable health campaigns, comparing it to the famous Grim Reaper AIDS ad.

"I remember when I first saw 'Sponge', the image of the thick black cancer causing tar being squeezed from the sponge was sharp and confronting," she said at the launch of the $1m campaign in Sydney today.

"I was probably about seven when it first went to air, and I still remember the ad.

"It's a bit like the grim reaper ad of cigarette advertising."

Sponge was one of Australia's first quit-smoking campaigns, and when first aired led to a skirmish between the Tobacco Institute of Australia and the Wran State Government.

In 1983, the tobacco lobby unsuccessfully tried to have the campaign banned by the Advertising Standards Council, claiming the ads were not factually correct.

The ad was so effective that research published in 1990 found Sydney's smoking rate fell 2.8 per cent more than in Melbourne, where Sponge was not aired.

John Bevins, the advertising executive who developed the concept, said the "tobacco industry was scared of Sponge".

"As late as 1983, the tobacco industry and its lawyers were still denying the existence of scientific and medical evidence that smoking makes you sick," he said.

The success of the ad was a win for "proper science, not propaganda", Mr Bevins said.

Ms Firth said the ads had tested "phenomenally" well, both among those who had seen it before, and those who had not.

Seventy per cent of smokers were concerned about their smoking after seeing the ads, while 60 per cent said it was more likely to make them quit, Ms Firth said.

"When we did a dry run testing smokers we found good results, especially amongst a generation that hadn't seen it before," she said.

The three-month Sponge campaign will begin on Sunday.

---

Source:

Sponge Campaign - Cancer Institute NSW
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/...

Comments

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Some people really don't get captivated by some ads right now. I just don't know why, but I think lots of 'em have been indulging themselves in smoking! No one in our family smokes, and I'm so proud of it! I wish some people would really try, oh not try, but QUIT! I don't like getting into their lives, though. I'm just concerned with everyone's health. ;)

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