Press Release

Embargoed until: Tuesday, June 24, 2014, 6:00 a.m. E.T.
Contact: CDC Media Relations
(404) 639-3286

New hard-hitting “Tips From Former Smokers” ads to air this summer

Campaign returns with new participants who suffered tobacco harms

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching hard-hitting ads for its 2014 “Tips From Former Smokers” campaign. Beginning July 7, these ads will run nationwide for nine weeks on television, radio, and billboards, online, and in theaters, magazines, and newspapers. The launch of these ads comes as CDC is also releasing new data on how many U.S. adults use some form of tobacco.

The Tips national tobacco education campaign has helped hundreds of thousands of smokers quit since it began in 2012. This year Tips returns with new ad participants living with the devastating effects of smoking-related diseases.

“These new ads are powerful. They highlight illnesses and suffering caused by smoking that people don’t commonly associate with cigarette use,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Smokers have told us these ads help them quit by showing what it’s like to live every day with disability and disfigurement from smoking.”

Participants include Amanda, a 30-year-old who smoked during pregnancy and whose baby was born two months early and then spent weeks in an incubator. According to the 2014 Surgeon General’s report on the health consequences of smoking, at least 1 in 10 women smoke during the last three months of pregnancy, making this powerful new Tips ad an important way to educate and connect women with smoking cessation services.

“Amanda’s powerful story brings to life some of the health problems smoking during pregnancy can cause for unborn children,” said Tim McAfee, M.D., M.P.H, director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “The best time to quit smoking is before you get pregnant, but quitting any time during pregnancy can help your baby get a better start on life.”