THE Ministry of Health (MOH) is taking a more tactical approach on its anti-smoking campaign this year, with the various phases of the campaign tied to specific events taking place in 2009.
Spencer Azizul Sdn Bhd, the advertising agency that was awarded the MOH’s “Tak Nak” account towards the end of last year, began the new year with the “I Quit” and “Aku Akan Berhenti” print, TV and radio ads.
“That’s when people make their new year resolutions, and we wanted smokers to make quitting smoking as a resolution. The ads also told them what steps to take to stop smoking,” general manager Mohammed Iqbal tells StarBizWeek.
In February, the campaign began to reflect MOH’s move to introduce graphic health warnings – disturbing photos of tobacco-related diseases – on cigarette packs from June 1.
The “Warning” ads, which only appear in print, show these photos that depict the real negative effects of the smoking. “MOH decided to stop being polite all the time and show that this is what smoking does to you and your family if you continue smoking,” Mohamed explains.
This year, the “Tak Nak” campaign, which has a budget of nearly RM10mil, is based on what’s happening at specific times of the year as opposed to basically running one campaign throughout, he says.
For example, when it was new year, the message was about new year’s resolutions. In the future, Spencer Azizul may have ads pertaining to events like the National Day.
Mohammed says that while the ads may change, there will be some consistent messages such as “Stop smoking because it’s not good for you.”
There has been mixed feedback from the public on the graphic nature of the ads. Some feel the ads are too graphic, while others welcome it.
Why choose to do such graphic ads? “The credit for this campaign should go to MOH,” Mohammed says. “They are the one that said, ‘Let’s go with this approach’. We only assist them in developing the visual elements and making sure it appears in the right media.
“On why we went for this particular approach: if we do not show the graphic elements on the negatives pertaining to smoking, you (the public) may never know. We all knew that by running this campaign, we would get mixed comments from the public. It even became a topic in blogs whether we should go this way or with another approach.
“But after the campaign has run for a period of time, we feel that based on what has appeared in the newspapers – comments by people – more people are saying that it is the right way to go, although there are also people who say it’s gory and frightens the kids.
“But at the end of the day, if you show your children that this is what happens when they smoke, this image will be in their mind when they want to take up smoking. Then they’d say, ‘No, thank you’.”
Mohammed says that when the images appear on all cigarette packets come June 1, they would be hard to see and only smokers would be exposed to the images. (The pictures on the front of the cigarette packs must cover 40% of the surface while the ones shown on the back must be 60% in size.)
“Now we’re exposing the ill effects of smoking to social smokers and non-smokers, including the young ones who intend to pick up smoking,” he says.
Creative group head Wong Kient Wai says some people are in denial and say the pictures are not real – that the images were created using Photoshop.
“Our society is still quite naïve. They only hear about it, but they can’t imagine how bad it is. No doubt the images have a deep impact and at the same time, it educates the people,” he says.
Spencer Azizul is preparing the next phase of the campaign, which is expected to start next month. It may or may not continue with such graphic ads.
Asked whether the agency is recommending to MOH a less graphic series of ads, Mohammed replies: “No comment.”
According to him, Spencer Azizul would take into account the feedback it gets from both MOH and the public before developing the next phase of the campaign.
Besides telling people to not take up smoking and to quit smoking, the agency also plans to ensure that people who have quit smoking don’t pick it up again.
“Each phase of the campaign has its own objective and MOH is very clear on what objectives it wants to highlight,” he says.
There is also plan to have a more integrated campaign that uses online and out-of-home media.
Asked whether the ads so far have been effective, Mohammed says: “They have created the awareness that we wanted, but I don’t have figures to show how many people have stopped smoking. But this is one Government campaign that has resulted in a lot of awareness.”
http://thestar.com.my/
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