European Commission Unveils Anti-Smoking Campaign

As part of its 'Help - for a life without tobacco' campaign, the European Commission today presented a new anti-smoking advert which will be broadcast from the 15th January on 80 television channels in 22 languages across all 27 EU Member States.

The new advertising campaign focuses on the negative health effects of passive smoking. The advert depicts a young adolescent experiencing breathing difficulties in her daily activities, and shows her watching her parents smoking in the living room.

European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said: "Every year, passive smoking kills 19,000 Europeans who don't smoke. This latest advertising campaign aims to remind smokers that their habit harms their children's health as well as their own."

The television campaign ties in with an e-mail and web based campaign where smokers can get help and advice to stick to their new year's resolution to quit smoking. The Commission's €72 million 'Help' campaign has been running for nearly 2 years. In that time, market research shows that over 150 million Europeans have seen the adverts, including 55% of young people, and the approval rating among the under-25 target group is 83%.

The Commission intends to publish a Green Paper on Smoke-Free Environments in early 2007 as part of broad consultation on the best way forward to tackle passive smoking in Europe.