Funded by the Department of Health, the Cancer Research UK "Death Repackaged" campaign features a series of dangerous animals with cute-sounding names, and the strapline "A nice name doesn't make something less deadly".
One ad from the campaign, which will run on TV, radio, outdoor and press, shows a great white shark called Susie. Others introduce Mike, a menacing crocodile, and Rosie, a snake with its fangs bared.
Cancer Research UK hopes that its scary animals will convince smokers that marketing some types of cigarette as less dangerous than others is simply a ploy to sell a product that is every bit as deadly as the full-tar version.
The campaign debuts as new EU regulations come into force on September 30, banning the use of words like "light", "ultralight" or "mild" on low-tar packets of cigarettes.
Brands like top-selling youth cigarette brand Marlboro Lights have already dropped the "lights" word as cigarette companies counter the EU by renaming their low-tar products "silver", "white", "fine" or "smooth".
The government hopes the campaign will make people realise stopping smoking is the only healthy option.
Professor Gerard Hastings, director of the Cancer Research UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research at the University of Strathclyde, said: "The tobacco industry allows the belief that some cigarettes are 'milder' than others to persist.
"This provides smokers with a 'fall-back' position with their addiction -- naturally a smoker feels they are moving in the right direction by choosing a 'low-tar' brand and often this is done instead of quitting."
Leaked advertising agency briefs show that the core low-tar smoker is a female upmarket professional, over 25, who is wracked with guilt about smoking but who can not give up. Smoking low-tar cigarettes is the "smart choice" to allay worries about the health risks and feelings of guilt associated with smoking.
It was also revealed that low-tar smokers can be misled by white cigarette packaging, which they correlate with a healthier product.
Professor Martin Jarvis, of the Health Behaviour Unit at University College London, said: "Cutting back to a supposedly 'low-tar' cigarette can easily be a fool's paradise. Without realising it, people smoke these cigarettes more intensively, and end up getting just as much exposure to tar and other harmful smoke components as from regular cigarettes."
These ads are the first in a three-year anti-tobacco campaign, the first by Cancer Research UK. A website, , with full details of the campaign has been developed by digital agency Reading Room. Media buying was through MediaCom.
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