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

Stirred, Shaken, and Sung

At the end of Pink Martini’s Carnegie Hall debut this past June, a conga line broke out in the audience and bounced its way up and down...

Harvard Students, Alumni to Compete at the 2026 Olympics

Six Crimson athletes are headed to the XXV Winter Games in Milano Cortina. 

Why Men Are Falling Behind in Education, Employment, and Health

Can new approaches to education address a growing gender gap?

Explore More From Current Issue

A stylized illustration of red coral branching from a gray base, resembling a fantastical entity.

This TikTok Artist Combines Monsters and Mental Heath

Ava Jinying Salzman’s artwork helps people process difficult feelings.

Black and white photo of a large mushroom cloud rising above the horizon.

Open Book: A New Nuclear Age

Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy’s latest book looks at the rising danger of a new arms race.

An image depicting high carb ultra processed foods, those which are often associated with health risks

Is Ultraprocessed Food Really That Bad?

A Harvard professor challenges conventional wisdom.