Smokers warned that kids ‘wanna be like you’

A new £5.2 million campaign is being launched that will highlight the danger to parents that their smoking will dramatically increase their children’s chances of becoming a smoker too.

The new NHS Smokefree advertising campaign - which will run on TV, online, radio, ambient and outdoor media – launches on the 2nd June. The TV advertising is set to the music of ‘I wanna be like you’ from ‘The Jungle Book’ movie and starts by showing harmless examples of how young children copy their mums and dads as they go about their daily life – relaxing at home, doing household chores and even watching TV. The film then takes a sinister turn and ends with a little girl picking up a crayon to copy her mother as she takes a drag on a cigarette.

A hard-hitting poster campaign picks up this same theme, featuring a child’s crayon resting on an ashtray, along with press adverts showing childish artistic portrayals of their parents smoking.

The campaign launch coincides with the Department of Health launching ‘The Future of Tobacco Control’ consultation paper which aims to start a debate around further measures that would stop people smoking and prevent young people starting to smoke1. It also coincides with World No Tobacco Day on 31st May, a worldwide awareness day designed to highlight the dangers of smoking that this year is based on the theme of ‘Tobacco Free Youth’.

Public Health Minister, Dawn Primarolo MP, said:

“This campaign highlights the fact that children absorb what is going on around them - therefore habits such as smoking seem normal in young people’s eyes. Stopping smoking is the best thing you can do for your own health but what people may not realise is that it’s also an incredibly positive thing to do for the futures of those closest to you. Smokers who want to quit can give themselves the best chance of success by calling 0800 169 0 169 to find out about the free support available on the NHS.”

Leading child psychologist and parenting skills expert of www.raisingkids.co.uk, Dr Pat Spungin, added:

““From a very young age children imitate the behaviour of their parents. The way parents act around their children plays a significant role in shaping how their children will behave in the future. The evidence shows that if parents don’t smoke, there is a much greater chance that their children will be non-smokers. The good news is that the NHS has a wide range of free support available to help smokers go smokefree – and by quitting now parents could stop their children from starting.”

The ‘I wanna be like you’ campaign will be supported by a separate advertising campaign promoting the help available to people wishing to go smokefree at local NHS Stop Smoking Services, of which there are over 150 throughout the country. The campaign shows people talking openly about their initial reservations to seek support but how valuable they found group sessions run by trained NHS stop smoking advisers in helping them to quit. The NHS Smokefree campaign has also produced a free ‘Get Support’ DVD about the services as well as a new ‘IOU’ voucher book for friends and family who want to help their loved ones become smokefree.

To order a DVD or ‘IOU’ voucher book and get more details of the free NHS support to help smokers go smokefree, call 0800 169 0 169 or visit www.nhs.uk/gosmokefree.