The City of Melbourne is getting creative in promoting its smoke-free zones by hiring street poets to recite anti-smoking poems. Image: Matt.
Anti-smoking ad campaigns have been found to be effective in reducing the rate of smoking, but there has been nothing quite as creative as what the City of Melbourne has been up to.
In the council’s ambitious effort to inform everyone that it has designated certain areas to be smoke-free zones, it has chosen a more street-level approach by recruiting the services of poetry performers to recite anti-smoking poems in the streets of the CBD.
The initiative, valued at $30,000, is meant to gain the attention of people passing through because the council’s research has shown that three quarters of people don’t realise that smoke-free areas exist.
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the Speakers’ Corner performers will spread the smoke smoke-free message through comic poems, songs and improvisation at declared smoke-free locations in the central city.
The roaming street performers will shout their message on their soapboxes as part of a creative week-long education campaign.
In August 2015, the council approved smoking bans in three popular city meeting places: permanent bans in QV Melbourne and Goldsbrough Lane and a daytime ban in City Square.
It follows the council’s approved smoking bans in three popular city meeting places in QV Melbourne, Goldsbrough Lane, and a daytime ban in City Square. The ban began on 1st October, 2015.
The campaign is unique to Melbourne as street performers are a hallmark of the city’s everyday experience, which makes it radically different to other anti-smoking campaigns that local governments have initiated.
One of the most prominent campaigns was initiated by the City of Sydney and the City of Perth called the ‘Yuk’ campaign, which meant the installation of a two-by-five metre perplex sign that spelled the word ‘Yuk’.
The sign was filled with used cigarette butts as a visual reminder for people to shift their thinking about cigarette butt litter.
The City of Melbourne’s campaign will be added to the list of creative ways that governments are trying to discourage smoking and promote healthier lifestyles.
Brilliant, Melbourne leads the way again! The Perth one ain’t bad either. Come on Sydney jump on board this no smoking push. In my immediate circle of friends we currently have one dead and 3 dying of cancer as a direct result of smoking tobacco. Whatever it takes!