Get ready for No Smoking Day (yawn)
Monday, March 9, 2020 at 14:41 Remember No Smoking Day?
In a crowded calendar it was once the biggest ‘health awareness day’ of the year. Today it struggles to attract even a handful of articles in the local press.
If I remember, No Smoking Day once had an annual budget of £600,000 which paid for a CEO, several members of staff and a variety of resources including promotional material.
A charity in its own right, it had its own logo, a dedicated website and a series of media friendly slogans.
Google 'No Smoking Day 2020' and not only will you not find a website, you'll struggle to find any details of this year’s event which takes place in just two days (Wednesday March 11).
It's not even clear who the organiser is.
After several years of declining interest the poisoned chalice was picked up a few years ago by the British Heart Foundation. Go on the BHF website however and the last reference to No Smoking Day is a press release issued on March 9, 2016.
Online No Smoking Day's biggest cheerleader seems to be Nicorette whose range of products includes patches, gum and lozenges. According to the Nicorette website (Get Ready for National No Smoking Day):
No Smoking Day was first held in 1984, coinciding with Ash Wednesday. Since then, it’s grown to become a major health awareness day, supported by a mix of public health and voluntary sector organisations, including the NHS and the British Heart Foundation.
The Health Assured website – which describes NSD as a 'significant day on the wellbeing calendar' – also credits the BHF as the organiser.
While it's true the old No Smoking Day URL (nosmokingday.org.uk) does indeed divert to the BHF website, what you find is not a page dedicated to NSD but a generic page about the perils of smoking.
All in all, a pretty poor show. Time, surely, to put this tired, decrepit event to bed, once and for all.
Reader Comments (2)
So boring and so irrelevant but I am not surprised anti smoker stooges looking for their slice of nicotine cash from smokers has now taken charge of this ridiculous non event. I smoked on Ash Wednesday 1984 and I have smoked every other day pushed as no smoking and I will smoke until I die..
It is not about health but greedy, money grabbing corporate businesses using charities as a front and I am not falling for any of it and never have.
The only people who care about a no smoking day are self congratulatory, back slapping, noses in troughs professional anti smokers which is a good enough reason not to touch it with a 6ft bargepole now, then, or in the future. Zzzzzzzzzz
No Smoking Day should be replaced with Repeal Smoking Bans Day!