Graphic £7m adverts try to get smokers off the hook

An office worker is dragged from his desk, over grimy carpets and down concrete stairs, to his usual smoking spot in a freezing car park by a giant fish hook that protrudes from his cheek. The same hook violently hurls a mother away from her small, reproachful daughter, and yanks a man through traffic as he is dragged into a newsagent's to buy cigarettes.

The idea that smokers are "hooked" on an average of more than 5,000 cigarettes a year is the message of the latest £7m advertising campaign from January 1 for five weeks. Timed to coincide with new year's resolutions, the images are so graphic that the ads will not be screened when children might be watching .

The Department of Health runs several advertising campaigns a year aimed at the 24% of adults who smoke, with a combination of shock tactics and promotion of the NHS stop smoking services. Only 3% to 4% of people who try to quit without help succeed but 15% quit if they are given medication - such as nicotine patches or inhalers - or behavioural support.

While the giving up process may be arduous, any reduction is beneficial, not least for the NHS which spends £1.7bn on treating smoking-related disease each year. Any abstinence benefits ex-smokers. Smoking shortens life by 10 years, kills 106,000 people each year in the UK, and makes smokers age by 10 to 12 years.

Launching the campaign, the public health minister, Caroline Flint, said: "Many smokers will be considering stopping as part of their new year's resolution. These adverts highlight the controlling message of tobacco. We know 70% of smokers would like to give up."

Robert West, professor of health psychology at University College London, said: "The nicotine in cigarette smoke can be as addictive as heroin and crack cocaine. By getting 'unhooked' you are freeing yourself from a lethal cycle of addiction." The ads "psychologically make a lot of sense" because they set up the "trigger" - the addiction of smoking - but then provide a solution: a phone number and website that will give details of NHS smoking cessation services.

Ms Flint said the smoking ban in pubs, clubs, workplaces and private venues from July would "contribute to the jigsaw of activity to help people stop smoking".

Today's best video

Today in pictures