State resumes anti-smoking TV campaign

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff

For the first time in six years, state tobacco control authorities are returning to the television airwaves with an internationally acclaimed advertising campaign aimed at getting smokers to stop.

The TV ads, part of a broader initiative that includes Internet and transit advertising, were unveiled today and will begin airing tomorrow on cable statewide and on broadcast stations in markets including Boston, Springfield, and Southeastern Massachusetts.

The campaign reprises a wrenching account from a man named Ronaldo Martinez, a smoker who lost his voice to throat cancer. There are new commercials, too, featuring women who recount tobacco-related illnesses they suffered and detail their decision to throw away their cigarettes.

The advertising push, which costs a little more than $1.5 million, is the cornerstone of efforts to reinvigorate the tobacco control bureau in the state Department of Public Health, which had sustained deep budget cuts during the administrations of Jane Swift and Mitt Romney. This year, the Legislature increased spending on tobacco control by $4.5 million, to $12.75 million. Still, that's not even one-fourth of the amount spent when the program was at its peak in 2000.