Conducted by the National Action Plan for Tobacco Cessation, the study identified 787 people who had quit smoking in the past two years and asked them what had worked for them, thereby evaluating the success of certain strategies. 

The study evaluated the effect of several diverse strategies including 1) televised ad campaigns promoting quitting and seven conventional types of cessation help; 2) nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), 3) prescribed medications, 4) professional help or advice, 5) self-help materials, 6) cessation programs, 7) telephone quit line, or 8) web-based cessation sites. The impact of a particular quitting aid was measured by multiplying the efficacy rate by its participation rate or penetration into the population, according to authors of the study.



Surprisingly, the facts showed that television advertising was most helpful in prompting smokers to quit, particularly commercials that featured scary smoking-related illnesses.  Figures demonstrated that “because the TV ads reached many more smokers, these ads helped more people to quit (30.5%) than any of the other methods. NRT helped 20.8%, professional help affected 11.1%, and telephone quit lines helped less than one percent of the quitters,” the authors of the study noted.

The results prompted study authors to conclude that money spent on aids such as telephone quit lines would be better spent in developing more and better television ads that tout the benefits of quitting smoking, a habit practiced by 20.9% of all American adults over age 18, according to figures recently released by the Centers for Disease Control.