Advertising Standards Slam Bogus NHS Claim

The Advertising Standards Agency block an attempt by the NHS to suggest in a promotional leaflet that smokers are “twice as likely” to stop smoking with NRT and “four times more likely” with NHS Stop Smoking Services because the claims are “misleading”.

by Chris Holmes

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) have blocked an NHS advertising leaflet which claimed that smokers were “twice as likely” to quit with Nicotine Replacement products and “four times as likely” to quit if they also used NHS Stop Smoking Services. For the very first time since the Truth Will Out Campaign was launched, the claims have been rejected because quitting success implies a permanent solution but the NHS were relying on the results at only four weeks, which the agency concluded was not the same thing at all, and was therefore likely to mislead the public.

I’ll say it is. And since we now know from the Borland report that the results dwindle to 6% success at the end of twelve months, which is the same result as a number of studies have found for willpower alone, we feel vindicated in claiming that NRT doesn’t work at all in the long run, and is therefore a complete waste of taxpayers’ money and the NHS should abandon it altogether. Instead they’re going to waste more valuable resources printing up leaflets that say something like: “Did you know that nicotine skin patches and chewing gum can be effective in aiding withdrawal from nicotine?” (The bit in bold type is a direct quote from the British Medical Association’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, Dorling Kindersley 2002.)  And now over to the March Hare, for the weather…

Here’s the link to the ASA story:

The Argus

**Update, January 2012: Harvard University publish a study that demonstrates NO USEFUL EFFECT from any form of NRT.  Just as I said in the book in 2007, and on this site from March 2008.

Hypnotherapy is the easiest way of all to quit smoking, and despite the best efforts of Edzard Ernst to suggest otherwise, we will establish this as scientific fact and common knowledge in the end.  The sooner the better.  Nicotine: The Drug That Never Was fully explains the reasons for the complete failure of the medical approach and exactly how hypnotherapy wipes out compulsive habits like smoking, usually in a single session. As it says in the book, there is no such thing as “therapeutic nicotine”. Give it up, Doc.

more info about hypnotherapy for smoking cessation

2 thoughts on “Advertising Standards Slam Bogus NHS Claim”

  1. NHS Smokefree on Facebook.
    A delightful lady posted on the discussion board about her hypnotherapy success, relapse, and intention to quit again. Their response???

    Hi Denise, it’s great to hear that you’re planning a new quit attempt. Research shows that getting support and using stop smoking medications heighten your chances of success by four. If you’re entitled to free prescriptions then the products are free for you, if not you would get a larger amount for a prescription than you would buying the product over the counter. To find details of your Local Stop Smoking Service (LSSS) where you can access both of these services please visit etc etc etc.

    Interestingly I nicely pointed out their “4 times more likely” mistake and for my trouble had my post removed and was ejected from their group.

    I’m not sure their intentions towards smokers trying to quit are entirely honourable??

  2. As I said in the book, NRT is a poison posing as a medication: there is no such thing as “therapeutic nicotine”! NRT was originally passed as if it were “effective” based on its performance at only six weeks, and the manufacturers were allowed by the FDA to quote the six-week outcome as the “success rate” of the product, which was always totally misleading. But now that Harvard have confirmed my claim that it doesn’t help smokers AT ALL in the long run, it should be immediately dropped by the medical profession. It’s worthless. An “evidence-based” fraud.

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