Is enlisting children in war on tobacco going over the top?

In a simple yet heart-rending plea, a little girl tells her mother why she wants her to stop smoking. Mollie, 10, hesitates as she voices her fears about her mum dying from lung cancer just like her grandma did, saying: “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Mollie and a handful of other children are the real-life stars of a new Department of Health Smokefree advertising campaign that plays on the conscience of parents that smoke. This latest campaign has been launched alongside new Government research which found that more than half of children with a parent who smokes say their one wish for Christmas is that their mum or dad gives up.

Some people might say that using children to get adults to quit smoking is nothing more than emotional blackmail, while others will argue if it improves the nation’s health in the long run, then why not? But perhaps the real question ought to be is it really the best way of motivating them to kick the habit?

According to the first Smokefree campaign, which ran two years ago, up to 500,000 smokers made an attempt to quit and Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking & Health (ASH), believes this tactic can have an impact.

“Evidence shows that smokers need to be motivated to quit and need advice on how to do it. This campaign does both. Parents want to do their best for their children, while it may be hard to do something just for themselves.”

Indeed, NHS Smokefree ambassador and Birds Of A Feather actress Linda Robson says her children were the reason she stopped smoking. Robson, whose father died from lung cancer aged 57, says she didn’t want to put her own children through a similar experience. “The thought of my kids visiting me in hospital was a strong motivation for me, and since I decided to quit my three kids have been a huge support. There are times now when I still want to reach for a cigarette, but for my own health and for the benefit of my family I’m committed to staying smokefree.”

However, using scare tactics in anti-smoking campaigns can be counterproductive. As someone who smoked for the best part of a decade myself I remember switching channels whenever one of these ads came on or going outside to have a cigarette. They can also be controversial and in 2009, the Advertising Standards Authority found that a government advert aimed at convincing parents to quit upset children and broke several rules.

It also emerged this week that tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing the Australian government over a new law making plain packaging mandatory for cigarettes from December 2012. The company is arguing that removing its trademark from tobacco packaging will cuts its profits and see fake brands flood the market.

Branding and packaging are seen as one of the last remaining tools for companies to recruit new smokers, but are they the reason people start smoking, or is it out of curiosity, rebelliousness and wanting to look more grown up? I certainly didn’t start smoking after watching the “happiness is a cigar called Hamlet” ads back in the 80s. I started, rightly or wrongly, for the reasons I mention above.

There are about 10 million adult cigarette smokers in the UK and a similar number of ex-smokers. What is true is that a lot of smokers want to quit – Ash claims about half of them make at least one attempt to do so each year – but according to a 2006 study funded by Cancer Research UK only two to three per cent manage to kick their habit long-term.

For some people TV adverts do work, others turn to nicotine gum and patches, counselling, hypnosis and even acupuncture. Professor John Britton, chairman of the Royal College of Physicians’ Tobacco Advisory Group, says many different approaches are often needed to quit smoking, and using children in TV campaigns is one of many valid methods.

“Lots of smokers want to stop smoking, and most need some sort of trigger to make them try. For every smoker, it’s a slightly different trigger, and the new Smokefree campaign will hit some of them. If one doesn’t work, you try another,” he says.

“All of these different approaches offer something for some smokers. Giving up smoking has been likened to getting stuck in a busy nightclub when a fire breaks out – you need as many exits as possible.”