Giving up Smoking?

It is often assumed that propaganda campaigns such as those based on the two medical reports on smoking and health do in fact put people off smoking. The speedy descent in consumption beginning in 1952 was converted by a rapid rise beginning in 1955, just after the reports identifying smoking as the chief cause of lung cancer were announced. It is doubtful if on the whole the reports have had much of an effect on the public, with the possible exception of doctors who seem to have stopped smoking to a significant extent. Even if people do make the decision that they ought to give up smoking it is well known that the law of temporal succession makes this extremely difficult for them. The pleasure following the smoking is immediate; the satisfaction following the giving up of smoking is long delayed and never as clear-cut and definite.