The Centers for Disease Control has rolled out another hard-hitting “Tips From Former Smokers” ad campaign.
The ads feature people whose smoking addiction lead to disfiguring and fatal diseases, as well as the family of a Hollywood star who encouraged people to stop smoking so they can “live long and prosper.”
Julie Nimoy’s earliest memories of her father always involved a cigarette.
“We’d be in the car, he’d be smoking. He’d walk around the house, the backyard, he’d have a cigarette in his hand… in bed, he’d smoke in bed. I mean, he smoked everywhere” she recalls.
“Dad” to Julie was “Mr. Spock” to the rest of us.
Leonard Nimoy smoked heavily for 30 years before quitting. He used Twitter in his final years to urge others to stop smoking, saying he was “proud of the quitters.”
Though he’d quit decades earlier, Nimoy died from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder, or COPD, in 2015.
His widow, Susan, is carrying on Nimoy’s message through the new anti-tobacco ad from the CDC.
The CDC launched its first “Tips From Former Smokers” campaign in 2012, a jarring look at the physical effects of tobacco. The CDC credits the ads with prompting at least nine million Americans to try to quit smoking.
Click here for more information on quitting smoking from the CDC.
