Bridie Smith
May 27, 2013
Authorities are unapologetic for the highly emotive approach taken in the latest anti-smoking campaign.
Set in the lounge room of a family home, the ”last dance” advertisement by Quit Victoria depicts a woman going to the aid of her husband as he tries to get out of bed.
Dressed in his pyjamas with a breathing tube hooked over his ears and up his nose, he is weak. The two attempt an impromptu dance as a child looks on. He barely has the energy to smile.
”The scenes in this commercial are playing out in lounge rooms across the state,” said Quit Victoria executive director Fiona Sharkie. ”It’s a reminder that smoking doesn’t just affect the smoker, it affects the family.”
Catherine Cridland, 39, knows more than most the void a death from a smoking-related illness can leave. Both her parents died by the time she was 34 – her father, Daniel, from emphysema and her mother, Eva, from a stroke. Both began smoking in their early teens.
”I am an orphan now,” she said. ”This ad makes you feel that this is a man about to be lost to a wife and his children; it’s really sad.”
Cancer Council Victoria chief executive Todd Harper said he was aware that the scenario depicted in the six-week campaign would be distressing to some.
”It’s a very considered decision for an organisation like ours to commit to putting ads like this to air,” he said. ”But we do it because we know they work.”
According to recent data, one in seven Victorians smokes.
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