How smoking children set the phone on fire. Read more about How smoking children set the phone on fire.
Michigan Department of Community Health
With a significantly reduced budget, spreading an anti-smoking message and offering smokers a free phone counselor would be difficult. Smokers knew the facts about their dangerous habit, and many had tried to quit before, but were unsuccessful. We needed an unexpected approach to make them listen.
We believed smokers might not quit for themselves, but they'd quit for their children. With this memorable campaign, calls to the Quitline jumped from 227 to more than 1,000 a month. The campaign's influence grew as health departments in other states requested to run the spots. The spots won prestigious Radio-Mercury and Mobius awards.