Where did the Tak Nak Campaign went wrong?

I was given a questionairre yesterday on Smoking. It asked all sorts of questions on why do you think people start smoking and why did you start smoking which was okay and all, except I don't smoke. These lips haven't touched a cigarette butt for a good 8 years and I'm damn proud of it, especially when you look around and find a majority of your friends doing it.


This questionairre brought me back to the days when the 'Tak Nak' anti-smoking campaign went under scrutiny for being the biggest government advertising flop of the century with millions of tax-payers money gone to wasted. Unfortunately, you can't really blame the government for not trying, they did but they just went about addressing the issue in the wrong way possible.


Nowadays, people tend to look at smoking as something that you try to prevent starting, instead of a bad habit that requires quitting. Trust me, nothing beats peer pressure in scare tactics, especially when it comes to young teens who are looking for a crowd to fit into. So, you can go 'Tak NAK!' all you want but quite frankly, as long as there is a friend who smokes, the kid will still be prone to starting a very hard to quit habit.


I have a lot of friends who smoke and I thank god that they're quite considerate when smoking around me or any other friend who doesn't smoke. They often ask if they can light up in my car (well, it's my car and I don't really mind as long as they blow the smoke outside) and also when we're somewhere eating. A lot of them have tried to kick the habit but are unable to for some deep psychological reason.


It can't be that they're addicted to it; the human body needs only 3 days to clear up any traces of nicotine within the blood stream. It could perhaps be something deeper; an emotional dependence of it or perhaps it serves as a relaxant for when they're really stressed. What the government should be doing is targetting these people; the ones who want to quit but can't. They know the health dangers that come with smoking, they all do! What they do not know is how to effectively quit smoking!


This strategy could probably come up with some of the best and most creative slogans in the world;
"It's cool to quit!" - this refers to the idea that quitting is a negative trait but in this case it's for the benefit of the smoker to quit.


"Light up? No, Lighten up!" - refers to how people deal with stress, rather than lighting up a smoke, they might as well lighten up, relax and chill to clear their thoughts.


There's a ton of stuff people can do to combat stress, thus distracting them from the thought of lighting up a cigarette. This should be the way the government should address the issue of smoking. Don't focus on health dangers, TELL THEM HOW TO QUIT! This is Malaysia, they won't do anything unless you show them how!


Target the potential smokers only as a secondary target. It's the best way to handle this problem; by eliminating the peer pressure, you reduce the temptation to try.