If you've ever turned on the TV to see a harrowing story of a person with a hole in their throat warning against the dangers of smoking, you witnessed an ad by the Tips From Former Smokers campaign. The ads from this government-funded anti-smoking media effort were as effective as they were scary, prompting millions of Americans to try to quit smoking. But recent government funding cuts have chopped the Tips from Former Smokers campaign, which will be discontinued later this month.
Smoke signals
Anti-smoking media campaigns have been around for decades. Several studies in the 1940s and 50s found smoking to be harmful to health, prompting the rise of anti-smoking advocacy groups. In 1967, one such group called Action on Smoking and Health "filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission under its fairness doctrine that television and radio stations should provide free time for anti-smoking advertising when they aired paid cigarette advertising," said a 2007 analysis. As a result, cigarette consumption decreased. Since then, campaigns have appeared on and off in different forms.
In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started Tips From Former Smokers, the "first national campaign sponsored and funded by a federal agency with the goal of educating the public about the harmful effects of smoking and encouraging quitting," said the CDC. The program, which highlighted the experience of real smokers and their health problems, proved to be extremely effective. A July 2024 study estimated that the Tips campaign generated close to 2.1 million additional calls to tobacco quitlines between 2012 and 2023.
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But the Tips ads are slated to end in late September due to the Trump administration's CDC cuts. "This isn't a budget cut or a way to make the government more efficient," a CDC staffer who worked in the Office on Smoking and Health said to CBS News. "Ending the Tips campaign is a decision that will cost people their lives and American taxpayers millions of dollars in healthcare costs."
A new spark
As of today, tobacco is still the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S., accounting for approximately 490,000 deaths per year. Over 16 million Americans live with a disease caused by smoking. Secondhand smoke can also be dangerous. These statistics mean that encouraging smokers to quit can improve both individual and societal health — and the loss of the anti-smoking campaign is likely to raise tobacco usage once more.
"If we take our foot off the gas, what do we think will happen?" said a former CDC employee to NBC News. "Tobacco use rates will increase among youth and fewer adults will quit. Because of that, people will die." According to the CDC, close to 9 out of 10 adults who smoke cigarettes daily first tried it by the age of 18, and two in five students who have ever used a tobacco product still currently use them.
This is hardly a partisan issue. Approximately 72% of Americans believe that "television, online and print advertisements aimed at reducing smoking or encouraging people to quit smoking are important," said a recent poll by Ipsos. "Ending the campaign won't end addiction," said CBS News. "It will eliminate the biggest national megaphone to encourage people to take the first step and make it easy to get help."
