$3M City Ad War Against Smoking
03/07/01
Just try to ignore this anti-smoking campaign. The city is spending $3 million to make sure you don't.
New York City spends $3M on "Quit Yet?" campaign.Whether you're walking down the street, hopping into a cab or flipping through TV channels, you'll be asked one question over and over: "Quit yet?"
"It is never too late to gain health benefits from quitting," city Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said yesterday.
The ad blitz is targeted at smokers who are thinking about kicking the habit.
Cohen said he hopes the ads will serve as constant reminders and encourage smokers to call the New York Smokers Quitline at (888) 609-6292.
But his biggest challenge may be getting media-saturated New Yorkers to even notice.
The city will use about $3 million from the $13 million it has received so far from the national tobacco settlement to plaster posters across hundreds of bus shelters and subway cars, and also to pay for TV and radio commercials. The campaign will run in both English and Spanish.
The American Cancer Society says 169,500 new cases of lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death among men and women, will be detected this year.
Cigarettes
