There is a new advertising one brand of nicotine patch on British TV at the moment. The ad, the strikingly beautiful woman holding a cigarette number of Kodak moments, all the jazzy chiaroscuro. The cigarette, and then disappears from these sexy photos, and the woman riding the motorcycle as an attractive-looking than before. The commentary, then it is “Lose the smoke. Hold fire.”

Seeing this ad made me wonder whether these anti-smoking organizations are finally getting round to understanding the psychology of a smoker. And if so, that spells good news for all of us.

If you are a smoker, you heart you know you want to stop the habit. Maybe that will never admit it – and because today’s culture of group persecution I do not blame you – but deep down you know. If there were to be offered the chance to wake up tomorrow is a happy, non-smoking nicotine did not want, you probably take it.

The problem is that the major groups responsible for trying to help smokers quit (profit and non-profit) goes about it completely the wrong direction. They throw a scare tactic smokers, and told them that the cigarettes will kill them, and that causes impotence, and the slow and painful death. I hate to say it, but it’s a no-brainer. And people still buy cigarettes. Yet, despite this obvious error, these organizations will continue to play in the same scaremongering tone.

40 days as a former smoker, let me cut to the chase on this: people are not smoking to their health. You know, this is crippling, you know, to be fatal. The men smoke an entire truckload of other reasons. Some people in this picture. For some people, this feeling of relaxation. For others, this sense of creative momentum. It is certain that some deal with the stress. For others, it is about dealing with boredom. Smoking is almost entirely psychological Fix.

This is why we were delighted with the latest ad campaign. “Lose the smoke and keep the fire”. Fascinating. Instead of battering smokers over the warnings of impending death, the nicotine patches marketers finally went to the heart of the problem – a psychological dependence. And in this case, they are aimed at younger audiences, apparently tried to break down the idea that something good will lose points if he does not smoke. I dare say that a drive to get 18-35 year olds in the habit, before the implementation of the smoking ban. This is a lucrative market, no doubt about that.

So, when is the next step? Well, if the marketing people really understood that smoking is a psychological addiction more than anything else, then the best thing you could do is offer a free report on some of the product. Encourage smokers to stop, instead they are treated like vermin. The smokers are no different from any other member of society, who has been brainwashed, except for the fact that the result is that brain-washing a habit considered offensive to some. But the point is that the smoker, such as the belief that there is a need for cigarettes, like a certain young lady you feel you need the latest accessories to make a low-rent Paris Hilton.

Smokers should not be afraid to quit the habit. On the other side is beautiful and the benefits only too surprising that the words they were unable to justice. The more you scare smokers, the more we push them, the more that they are afraid to move. Proceed with the positive way of saying, “Hey, it’s alright … it’s not so bad on this page you can!”

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