Table 2

Descriptions of television ads shown to smokers in all countries

Ad nameDescription
Cigarettes are eating you alive (Alive; New York City)Viscerally portrays the negative health effects of smoking by using strong graphic imagery of diseases and damaged tissue. Alive provides imagery and descriptions of multiple negative health effects of smoking.
Artery (Australia)A strong graphic and visceral (disgust provoking) advertisement. It uses imagery of human tissue, where fatty deposits are seen being squeezed from an aorta. Artery provides a specific health message regarding vascular disease caused by smoking.
Sponge (Australia)A visceral strong graphic ad, which shows dark, viscous tar being squeezed from a lung-shaped sponge. Sponge does not feature diseased tissue but instead uses a visual metaphor, where sponges are used to represent human lungs, to demonstrate the quantity of tar a smoker can inhale in a year.
Bubblewrap (Australia)A simulation-style ad, where plastic bubblewrap is used to demonstrate lung damage caused by smoking (emphysema). Unlike Sponge, Bubblewrap does not use disgust-provoking imagery in addition to this visual metaphor.
Zita (Australia)A personal testimonial ad. A real woman, Zita, describes her experience of dying of lung cancer. The ad alternates between scenes of Zita talking to the camera and videos and photographs of Zita and her family before she became ill