Agencies line up for DoH anti-smoking business

Alexander Shaw and PHD - are also being reviewed as the DoH moves to an
integrated approach.

COI, which is managing the pitch, has selected five agency teams to
compete for the combined task.

AMV is teaming with its fellow Omnicom agencies Craik Jones Watson
Mitchell Voelkel and PHD.

They will compete against Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Manning Gottlieb OMD and
WWAV Rapp Collins; Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, Mediaedge:cia and
Kitcatt Nohr; DDB London, ZenithOptimedia and Chemistry; and Farm, Naked
and Personal.

AMV's most recent advertising campaign, which targeted young people,
focused on how smoking affects their chances of success with potential
partners. In one spot, a young man snubs an attractive young woman in a
bar when he realises she smells of smoke. The ad carries the line: "If
you smoke, you stink."

Another spot targets young men and focuses on the sensitive issue of
sexual performance. The ad features a pair of walking fingers with a
burning cigarette positioned between them as a visual metaphor for a
penis. The strapline was: "Does smoking make you hard? Not if it means
you can't get it up."

The supporting DM campaign, through Kitcatt Nohr, highlighted how
smoking can damage your looks. A print and DM campaign featured images
of glamorous people with smoking-related defects such as wrinkles around
their mouths and stained teeth.

Sian Jarvis, the director of communications for the Department of
Health, said: "The campaign has been successful in encouraging cessation
and driving down prevalence, but owing to increasingly complex and
diverse objectives, a more integrated agency approach is required.

"While continuing to encourage people to give up smoking, we are looking
to build on our work on second-hand smoke, and impress on prospective
quitters the choice of support available, particularly local NHS Stop
Smoking Services."