Saatchi & Saatchi: Shock tactics will not effect ‘hard core’

Wednesday, 29, Aug 2007 12:00

Although cancer charities have predicted thousands of Britons will quit when picture warnings are introduced on cigarette packaging next year, a leading advertising expert has voiced concerns over resorting to shock tactics.

Adam Kirby of international advertising company Saatchi and Saatchi warned the graphic images of bulging throat tumours and blackened lungs were not a panacea.

Speaking to politics.co.uk today, Mr Kirby said: “There have been warnings on cigarette packs for two decades - or more- and still there are millions who continue to smoke.

“The graphic images of tumours, teeth and tar will of course move many to finally give up and so the action is absolutely justified.

“But the corollary is that the hard core may turn their back on the repugnant images and bury their head in the sand.”

Mr Kirby drew comparisons with drink-driving campaigns, which have presented the public with brutal car crash images for years.

Despite these, there are still numerous fatal accidents caused by people who do not heed the warnings.

He claimed shock tactics had a “limited shelf life” and were not a solution in themselves.

He acknowledged these campaigns could have a compelling outcome when used effectively, by startling some people into compliance, but warned “revulsion fatigue” was inevitable.

“After the teeth and the lungs and the tumours, where to next?

“It'll work for some who are probably ready to quit, but ultimately, 'shock inflation' debases the currency, and we have to move on to the next, nastier thing.”

Mr Kirby admitted he was not a public health expert, but suggested the solution to reducing cigarette consumption lay with a combination of factors.

He suggested the government could increase its public health campaigns - including on-pack messaging and restricting where people can smoke - but concluded the biggest single factor to encourage people to quit smoking would be to impose severe price rises.