2015 Bronze Healthcare

Story UK

NHS Scotland

NHS Smokefree Grounds

The Team
Dave Mullen, Susan Anderson, Ailsa Veitch, Karen Kneale, Kayleigh McCallum, Sheryl Newsome, Graham Robb

Contributors
The Gate - TV/Radio Production, The Weather - Website Production, Jackie Oudney - Director

Campaign overview

NHS grounds had been tasked with being totally smoke-free by April 2015. In the absence of any legislation to support this ambition, the campaign set out to raise mass awareness, help smokers understand the reasons behind it and, ultimately, convince them to comply.

By using familiar hospital imagery, the campaign reminded the public of the NHS’s purpose to protect everyone’s health and changed perception of outdoor NHS spaces from being just another public space to being an unreasonable place to smoke.

Strategy

The smoking ban in pubs and restaurants almost instantly created a new social norm, with smokers accepting pretty much without question the instruction to smoke outside public buildings. But that social norm lay at the heart of this challenge to make all NHS grounds smoke-free, with smokers seeing it as their ‘right’ to smoke anywhere outside and that this was actually smoking ‘responsibly’.

So the strategy focused on asking smokers to understand that other smokers, including patients, are more inclined to smoke if they see others light up – potentially leading to complications and delayed recovery.

The message ‘There’s NO place for smoking on NHS grounds’ raised awareness that smoking was no longer permitted while ensuring people understood that their need to smoke couldn’t take priority over the need to look after other people’s health.

Creativity

Taking people back to basics, the creative reminded people of the purpose of the NHS and that it just wasn’t right to smoke in a health-promoting environment – from the front door to the car park boundary.

A familiar hospital fixture, the green curtain surrounding patients’ beds, became a powerful visual symbol of these limits. In a 30 second TV/VOD ad, a nurse drew this curtain around a patient’s bed, carried on through the ward, out the entrance and around the car park. The idea cleverly symbolised the protective role of the NHS while clearly demarcating the smoke-free zone.

On radio, a very direct approach emphasised the message.

All ads included a ‘Thank you for respecting the health of others’ sign-off to acknowledge the efforts smokers had already made to smoke responsibly.

Results

Independent campaign evaluation reported an awareness increase from 55% to 82%. Of those who recognised the campaign, 93% got the message and were significantly more likely to strongly agree they would be embarrassed if caught smoking somewhere where it affected the health of others. 78% of campaign recognisers agreed that making places smoke-free helps improve the health of people in Scotland, versus 61% of non-recognisers, and were also more likely, by 88% to 78%, to agree it was their responsibility to consider the health of others when deciding where to smoke.

The campaign was evaluated as “very effective in achieving its main aim, with a significant increase in awareness of the change in policy” and the green curtain has become a memorable campaign icon, with NHS Boards applying it to their own online and offline communications.