Quitting smoking? New campaign uses social media to encourage people to quit

A new campaign is using social media to help people who are trying to give up smoking.

Pfizer Healthcare and the Irish Heart Foundation have set up a website which shows a map of Ireland (and the rest of Europe) which tracks the number of tweets about quitting smoking every week. The campaign aims to get people talking about their experiences of trying to quit in a bid to build up a network of support from other people on Twitter.

Currently there are only around 100 tweets sent every week in Ireland about quitting smoking, compared with more than 2000 per week in the UK – although it does have a population fourteen times larger than Ireland.

The campaign also focuses on the amount of money smokers spend on cigarettes, pointing out that someone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day will spend around €3,285 on cigarettes in one year.

“Research shows that smokes consider quitting smoking because of those close to them and so it’s important they have the help they need to quit,” said Paul Horan of Pfizer Healthcare Ireland. “We’re therefore calling on family, friends and work colleagues to share their support with those trying to break their smoking addiction by tweeting #qweetwithhelp”.

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Source: Christine Bohan,thejournal.ie, 08/10/12