Excellence in Media Relations - International

Summary of work

Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable, launched in June 2011, is a three-year awareness-raising, smoking cessation campaign initiated by the European Commission.

The campaign serves to provide smokers with the motivation, practical tools and advice to quit smoking and become ‘unstoppable’ in their smoke-free lives.

Media, a key conduit to campaign awareness was incorporated into a multidisciplinary programme spanning the EU27 Member States.

To grab attention; a uniquely motivating approach to smoking cessation was adopted achieving widespread European media coverage across print, broadcast and online channels. This campaign in one year resulted in 151,000 Europeans actively seeking help to quit smoking.

Judges comments

This campaign deserves to be recognised. It was thorough and effective. It garnered enormous international coverage of a very complicated programme. The creative message and the positive focus was eye catching.