#Stoptober ... It’s like October, without the cigarettes.

Recently, Tom wrote about the shift from shocking to positive messaging in old and new anti-smoking campaigns. Here’s another example from the NHS: Stoptober

There are a lot of “stop smoking” campaigns out there, but this one has a friendly red ball…

NHS is asking people to quit for just 28 days during the month of October. Their research indicates if you can stop smoking for 28 days, you are 5 times more likely to remain smoke-free.

There’s a cheeky slogan too: “It’s like October, without the cigarettes.”

I get to give the ‘h’ keys on my laptop a rest because this is an anti-smoking campaign that can’t be described as “hard-hitting” or “horrifying”. Instead, this campaign is “huggable”. Check out the footage of the giant Stoptober ball rolling around England:

There’s plenty of online support for Stoptober participants on the website, Facebook & Twitter. There’s also a mobile app to download, and the ability to sign up for “motivational” text messages.

Can the NHS cheerily coax you into going smokefree this month or would a great big scare work better?