Giving up is hard to do

The New Year has brought with it a raft of campaigns aimed at trying to make us all much more fit and healthy in 2006, plaguing us to stick to the resolutions we made in a slight stupor on New Year's Eve.

Each year, around 4 million people in the UK try to give up smoking but only 3-6 per cent succeed.

With this in mind and the inevitability of a smoking ban in public places (no matter how piecemeal), makers of smoking cessation products, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer, have wasted little time in galvanising their marketing machines.

GSK's NiQuitin CQ Real Quit campaign is back on our screens with new quitter Maggie McDonaugh, a 38-year-old mother of two from South London, who will share the highs and lows of giving up through real life video diaries, in radio ads and online at www.click2quit.com.

The company has ploughed £4m into the campaign, a 39 per cent increase on spend for the last Real Quit campaign that ran in September 2005.

A print media campaign, as well as point of sale (POS) materials and direct mail will also support the broadcast ads.

The Click2Quit website allows patients to work out a plan to help them quit offering tips and advice.

Pfizer welcomed the New Year with the return of the Cravings Man theme.

The campaign costs £3.8m and includes television ads, press advertising aimed at healthcare professionals and consumers, plus POS.

It focuses on the Nicorette 16-hour patch, which delivers nicotine when it is needed during the day but not at night. Research has shown that very few quitters are worried about succumbing to cravings first thing in the morning. However, 93 per cent of relapses occur between midday and midnight.

Both campaigns will run across all media throughout January.