'Tips From Former Smokers' Ads are Shockingly Powerful: Nine Week Campaign Starts July 7th

The campaign "Tips From Former Smokers" is back with several new advertisements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help change the minds of current tobacco users.

The new ads feature two middle-aged people who have lost their teeth, a man with a hole in his throat and a woman who had a premature baby.

In 2012, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially launched the campaign in the hopes of swaying over 42 million Americans to give up the deadly habit. During its beginning, the CDC received over 100,000 additional calls to its quit line at 800-QUIT-NOW hot line, helping an estimated 6 million concerned nonsmokers get help for their family and friends.

Similar to the original ads, North Carolina woman, Terrie Hall, who lost her larynx due to oral and throat cancer, will also be featured.
The deadly effects of smoking hit hard for Hall, who asked that she be filmed for the advertisements just days before she died at 53-years-old. "I don't want anyone to go through what I'm going through," said Hall, shown in her hospital bed.

The new ads will run for about nine weeks, starting on July 7 and be televised in English and Spanish. Television commercials will not be the only form of advertisement. Radio, billboards, Internet, magazines and newspaper will also showcase the message.

The ads may be difficult to watch. However, they might be enough to save some people's lives, according to health officials.

"Smokers have told us these ads help them quit by showing what it's like to live every day with disability and disfigurement from smoking," CDC director Tom Frieden said in a statement.

To see more of the advertisements, watch this video, courtesy of the CDC.