Stoptober – what's that all about, then?
Friday, October 2, 2020 at 12:57 In its campaign evaluation for Stoptober 2018 (the last evaluation report that is currently available), Public Health England boasts:
Campaign recognition
Recognition of Stoptober continued to build in 2018, with 83% of smokers recognising it. This has been improving continually since the campaign low of 2016 (67%) where there was no TV spend, suggesting that TV plays a role in driving recognition. Recognition of Stoptober is now back to peak levels which have not been achieved since 2015 (80%).
Top level understanding of Stoptober also remains strong – 70% associate it with ‘stop smoking’ messaging, with incorrect references remaining a relatively small minority ...
A small minority? Perhaps, but it's nevertheless interesting (and sometimes amusing) how many tweets using the #Stoptober hashtag refer not to smoking but to alcohol.
Here are some examples. There are many more, believe me.
See also: Evaluating Stoptober
Reader Comments (4)
The lifestyle wing of public health lie about everything but make grand statements for maximum effect on future funding.
That politicians are either too thick or too prejudicial to see through the scam shows the dire state of affairs in this country. Propaganda and looking good is apparently better than actual results.
In short, public health tells the sweet little lies smokerphobic politicians want to hear.
Prohibitionist propaganda strikes again. The temperance lobby always linked smoking and alcohol. They just want to keep the connection obscure until they gain enough power to ban both.
I thought that the revoltingly cheesy Stoptober campaign was organised and run by PHE - and haven't they been disbanded in the wake of their inept handling of the Covid crisis and figures? So how come it's going ahead this year? I rather thought that the fact that I've heard zero about it on the TV or radio was a hopeful sign that it had gone the way of National Stop Smoking Day, which has also been blessedly conspicuous by its absence over the last few years.
Misty, Public Health England is due to be abolished in March 2021.