Stoptober - it's only our money
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 9:00 Stoptober, the "28-day stop smoking challenge" run by Public Health England, is launched today.
Last year PHE, which is funded by the Department of Health, hired four "top TV" comedians to promote the campaign. Together they cost the taxpayer £195,000.
Al Murray, one of the four, was also hired to promote the 2014 campaign.
This year the Stoptober budget has been slashed, allegedly, from £5m to £1m and savings had to be made.
Instead of TV and radio ads the campaign is focussing on Facebook advertising - £500,000 worth - in the belief that two-thirds of smokers use social media.
Murray and his mates have departed and the new "celebrity ambassadors" are Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood, former Atomic Kitten member Natasha Hamilton, Sky Sports presenter Chris Kamara and former England cricketer Phil Tufnell.
Tufnell is an interesting choice because the last time I saw him (in the flesh) he was addressing the Association of Independent Tobacco Specialists at their annual tobacco trade lunch at Lords.
That was in 2015. I wrote about it here and as I reported the last thing I heard him say was, "If you've got any cigars I'll be outside having a fag."
To be fair, this not the first time Tufnell has been associated with Stoptober. In 2013 he kept up a constant commentary on Twitter, keeping his followers informed of a previous attempt to quit smoking using what looked like a rather primitive e-cigarette called Kwit Cig.
That clearly didn't work because he was still on the fags last year and now PHE has recruited him as their quit smoking "ambassador".
Time will tell how much he and his fellow "celebrities" have been paid but, don't worry, it's only our money.
Update: To promote the launch of Stoptober 2016 Public Health England is pushing the fact that smoking rates in England are at an all-time low.
I guess they want publicly-funded campaigns like Stoptober and local stop smoking services to take some of the credit.
In radio interviews this morning however I've been pointing out that if smokers want to quit they are increasingly using free market e-cigarettes in preference to state-funded stop smoking initiatives.
Last year, as I have previously reported, Stoptober saw a 15 per cent drop in the number of people who signed up compared to 2014. Meanwhile there has been a 51 per cent drop in the number of people using stop smoking services in England and Wales since 2010/11.
This morning the Press Association quoted me as follows:
"Quit smoking campaigns like Stoptober are a waste of public money because smokers don't need the state to help them quit.
"Smokers who want to stop are increasingly using free market solutions like e-cigarettes that cost the public nothing."
See Number of smokers in England falls to record low (Independent).
Reader Comments (11)
It would also be good to remind them that there are millions of us who love smoking and have no intention of quitting. Not now, not ever, and never in the face of abuse and bullying with public money
Pat, I will be posting excerpts from some of today's interviews later. When I got the opportunity that is exactly what I did say!
Brilliant. Thank you x
No - they're crediting Standardised Packaging for the 2015 reduction. Yes, really!
Guardian:
Of course the actual number of people smoking is much higher than the reported rate. What waste of money; if people wanted it quit they would. Most smokers enjoy smoking and know the risks have been exaggerated.
When the media fails to recognise or challenge obvious lies, one is not surprised that they fail in their duty to expose the more subtle lies paid for with public money - and there have been plenty of them going back decades that have not been scrutinised.
http://order-order.com/2016/09/20/245371/
Meanwhile Debs Arnott keeps leeching her fat 160,000 a year salary by promoting dishonesty and a hate campaign. Just imagine how many cancer drugs currently denied to children on the grounds that they are too expensive for the NHS to fund, that could save lives if that money wasn't wasted on funding antismokers' lifestyles and the many trips abroad at conferences where no one but their own has a voice - despite the fact we have paid more than our fair share to be heard.
#ShameOnThem
I wouldn't take too much notice of official figures about the number of smokers. Given the current hysteria and prejudice, I Suspect most people simply lie. It is certainly in their interest to do so. I know one guy who even lies to his wife and they live together. And he smokes around 20 a day.
Sales figures won't help either because of the booming black market.
What a mess!
The reason why smoking incidence is at an all time low is almost certainly due to some smokers switching from fags to e cigarettes. Perhaps some of the jokers at ASH should be informed of this.
And, we assume, the surveys themselves use best practice?
I couldn't possibly comment!
I'd agree with Tony, that the official figures they proudly trumpet are way off the mark. Of course people lie when asked if they smoke. Who wouldn't in this current climate of persecution?
And as I understand it, the black market is huge, so they will have absolutely no idea how much tobacco is being consumed. Even fifteen years ago when I lived in UK, I rarely bought my tobacco from the shops. It was always available from some other, much cheaper source. And that was when the tax was merely punitive, not ruthlessly poverty inducing like it is now. So I would imagine that White Van Man has a much bigger share of the market today than he did back then.
Definitely people lie instead of being vilified. In my part of the world smoking is increasing and ecigs are on the decline.