DOH to use TV, social media in campaign vs. smoking

A new anti-smoking campaign focused on the health and economic harms of smoking to families will begin airing on major TV stations on Sunday.

“Protect Your Family, Stop Smoking” or “Mahalin ang Sarili at Pamilya, Paninigarilyo Itigil Na” is a joint ad campaign between the Department of Health (DOH) and Vital Strategies, an affiliate of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).

The ad campaign will run for four weeks on national TV and social media and on radio for Baguio, Region 7 (Central Visayas) and 8 (Eastern Visayas).

Kaloi Garcia, Vital Strategies communication officer, said the ads will target children 15 years and above as well as loved ones of smokers who can “authoritatively say to the smoker” that they need to stop smoking.

He added that the campaign will eventually be focused on areas with high prevalence of smoking and regional offices with “very active regional tobacco control networks.”

Region 6, 12, and Davao will be the focus of DOH's new anti-smoking campaign due to high prevalence of smoking in these areas pic.twitter.com/tNtUwWAw9T

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) October 14, 2016

“I also believe that those (regions) are the low-hanging fruits. The success rate of the campaign is better in these particular areas because of strong anti-tobacco advocacies in these areas,” Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial said at a press briefing Friday.

“Protect Your Family, Stop Smoking” is a follow-up campaign to last year’s endeavor that will sustain local anti-smoking efforts and create a model for a comprehensive anti-smoking policy.

“Our idea is to sustain the efforts in the areas so we can have a model of an area where we have a comprehensive anti-smoking policy and we have tobacco advocates, and an area where we have trimedia campaigns,” Ubial said.

“Parang kino-converge natin lahat ng efforts in those areas so we can really see that it’s the convergence of strategy that will bring down the tobacco use in this country,” she added.

According to estimates by the DOH, tobacco-related illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, chronic lung disease, and diabetes kill 10 Filipinos every hour and 80,000 ever year.

These four diseases have also “overtaken infectious diseases in this country as the leading killers and have caused nearly 2/3rds of deaths worldwide,” and further burdened the health system in low- to middle-income countries.

Ubial: 80,000 Pinoys each year die due to preventable diseases linked to tobacco use, including cancer, heart disease, chronic lung disease. pic.twitter.com/XcABrDkRGO

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) October 14, 2016

“80 percent of the global burden of deaths due to these four diseases I’ve mentioned are in low- and middle-income countries, therefore straining the healthcare system and contributing to poverty, imposing a major barrier to development,” Ubial said.

Worldwide, tobacco-related diseases kill nearly six million every year.

As part of the campaign, the DOH will also strengthen its mental health program by advocating for the passage of the mental health bill to provide a long-term solution to tobacco and drug addictions, which are both considered mental health problems.

Ubial: Tobacco, drug addiction are mental health problems; stems from the fact that individual is not strong enough to resist lure of subs

— Rie Takumi (@rie_takumi) October 14, 2016

“Tobacco use is an addiction; it’s addiction to nicotine. That’s part of the overall strategy to move our people from addiction—tobacco addiction, illegal drugs addiction, and substance abuse—to a healthier frame of mind. All this, including nicotine and smoking addiction, are mental health problems,” Ubial said.

“It stems from the fact that the individual is not strong enough to resist the lures of these addictive substances. Ensuring a good mental health program will be our sustaining mechanism for our campaign against tobacco use,” she added.

Local health officials are available to help smokers from relapsing while a helpline is under development to deliver smoking cessation support through mobile phones.

“They will just enroll in that program and they will receive messages daily asking them how they are today. If they have key words, pagnagke-crave sila, te-text lang nila 'craving,' and then merong reply instantaneously,” Garcia said.

Ubial is also in favor of increasing sin taxes to catch up with tobacco prices in other Southeast Asian countries.

“The overall strategy of sin tax, yung gradual increase hindi yung biglaan,” Ubial said. “We’re still one of the lowest cigarette prices in Southeast Asia. Ang cigarettes natin is just over a dollar. In Australia, it’s $50 dollars (per) cigarette packs.”

Half of the ads was paid for by the DOH while Vital Strategies paid for the other half and the entire development of the ads. Its 15- and 30-second versions will begin airing on major broadcasting companies beginning on Sunday. —KBK, GMA News