Video: award-winning public-service ads designed to scare smokers into quitting

View ads from Massachusetts and Armenia designed to scare smokers into quitting.

while directing tobacco-control efforts for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, professor of the practice of public health Gregory N. Connolly oversaw a campaign of public-service ads designed to scare smokers into quitting and to keep youths from viewing the habit as glamorous. The award-winning ads—some brutally graphic—aired in the state from 1995 to 2001 and became a model for similar efforts in other states and countries.

View six examples here:

 

Armenia is one of a dozen nations that have developed anti-smoking ad campaigns in consultation with scholars at Harvard School of Public Health. The video below includes two ads from the Armenia campaign. In the first, the message is that one shouldn't gamble with one's health; in the second, that smoking around one's children is like the children themselves smoking.

You might also like

How AI Is Reshaping Supply Chains

Harvard Kennedy School lecturer on using AI to strengthen supply chains

This Astronomer is Sounding a Warning on ‘Space Junk’

As debris accumulates in low Earth orbit, the danger of destructive collisions continues to rise.

Understanding AI Vulnerabilities

As artificial intelligence capabilities evolve, so too will the tactics used to exploit them. 

Most popular

Your Harvard 2026 Commencement Week Guide

College reunions and Alumni Day will take place the following week

Harvard Releases Database of 1,613 People Enslaved by University Affiliates

Research continues to track down living descendants.

Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time

Further links to Jeffrey Epstein surface in newly released files.

Explore More From Current Issue

A colorful hummingbird hovering by vibrant flowers.

Discoveries

Short takes on cutting-edge research

Katie Benzan stands on a basketball court holding a ball, with a hoop in the background.

How Women Are Changing the NBA

From coaching staffs to front offices, female leaders are bringing new strategies to men’s basketball.

White House and Harvard University buildings split diagonally with contrasting colors.

Harvard Weathers a Year of Turmoil

The federal government has launched unprecedented actions against the University. Here’s a guide.