Hard-hitting ad campaign targets smokers

HEALTH promoters are hitting smokers where it hurts — pulling not on their pockets but on their heartstrings.

A series of hard-hitting TV ads which began airing last night use real-life stories of people affected by cigarettes to try to convince smokers to kick the habit.

The ads, devised by the Health Service Executive (HSE), feature people such as teenager Margaret O’Brien from Kilkenny, who will sit her Leaving Certificate this summer without her mum to cheer her on.