Story: Women’s health

The high rate of Māori women smoking prompted a series of television advertisements called ‘It’s about whānau’. The advertisements avoided negative images, instead showing people who had successfully quit smoking or their family talking about what it was like. The people shown were not actors, but people talking about their own experiences with quitting. Response to the ads was positive, with the number of Māori contacting Quitline (a telephone service that helps people stop smoking) increasing by 25%. Shown here is the first of a diary series made about Angela Wallace and her whānau.