Stoptober, meet Octabber
Monday, October 1, 2012 at 7:55 Very late night watching the Ryder Cup.
No regrets, even though I had to get up a few hours later for the first of two breakfast radio interviews about Stoptober, the latest government-led initiative to help people quit smoking.
On Friday I was asked for Forest's response to the campaign.
Do you think campaigns like this are the governments attempts to tell us how to live our lives and a breach on civil liberty? Do you have a planned campaign response?
I replied as follows:
One upon a time there was No Smoking Day. Now it's a whole month. At this rate every day will be no smoking day.
We don't have a problem with the government encouraging those who want to quit smoking, but a whole month of stop smoking propaganda does seem excessive.
Initiatives like this are often counter-productive because if you do want to cut down or quit you want to do it in your own time and on your own initiative, not when the government tells you to.
Increasingly smokers are reaching for their fags in defiance because people don't like being told what to do.
Stoptober (terrible name!) might be a well-meaning initiative but it strikes us as a terrible waste of public money.
Indirectly it's part of a campaign to denormalise smoking which in turn encourages intolerance towards a significant minority of the adult population.
That may be an unintended consequence of Stoptober but anything that encourages discrimination should come with its own health warning.
Good luck to anyone who wants to quit but millions of adults enjoy smoking and have no intention of giving up.
Government should recognise that and stop harassing people for consuming a legal product whilst contributing over £10 billion a year to the Treasury.
Two sentences from this response appear here: Manchester unites to quit smoking in 'Stoptober'.
According to this report: "A rival campaign called ‘Octabber’ has been set up which encourages people to smoke though Mr Clark was keen to make clear he did not endorse the campaign at all".
Just to be clear, what I actually wrote was:
Forest does not have a planned campaign response because we only respond to campaigns like this if they actively encourage further restrictions against smokers and unlike No Smoking Day (which became an excuse for local authorities and small businesses to introduce further anti-smoking regulations) we have seen no evidence yet that Stoptober will adopt this approach.
There is however a Facebook campaign - not affiliated to Forest - called Octabber. For further information contact Pat Nurse on ....
I also gave a link to the Octabber Facebook page, hence the report's full headline: 'Manchester unites to quit smoking in 'Stoptober' – while rival campaign 'Octabber' launch pro-tobacco month'.
See also: Octabber – for those who don't want to quit (Tea and Cigarettes).
Reader Comments (5)
"A rival campaign called ‘Octabber’ has been set up which encourages people to smoke [...]"
Grr. Never trust the media to get anything right. Octabber isn't encouraging anyone to smoke; it is for those who do not wish to quit smoking this month. Next they'll probably say we're giving out free cigarettes to 10-year-olds...
We keep on being told that the NHS is short of money. How much is it wasting on this propaganda? I find the whole thing morally repugnant.
"Mr Clark was keen to make clear that he didn't endorse the campaign at all"
Thanks for the RT on Twitter Simon. The support and endorsement was much appreciated as is the plug for the #Octabber campaign on your blog today.
Does anyone else in addition to me get the impression that the Stoptober idea is a preparation for the introduction of plain packaging?
I forsee the mother of all media blitzes, to be followed by an announcement that the Gov (aka Holy Zealots in the DoH) will introduced plain packaging (despite the half million signatories against). The slippery slope is being prepared for other products also.
It is to help push us down to 18.5% of the population by 2015 as demanded by the EU if you recall Junican