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Anti-smoking television commercials make people 50 per cent more likely to kick the habit, according to the latest study of the Government campaign.

Despite doubts about the effectiveness of the blitz, the Health Development Agency hailed the research as evidence that a sustained campaign can help persuade smokers to give up.

Researchers studied a pounds 12.5 million Health Education Authority campaign by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO featuring the comedian John Cleese, which ran between 1992 and 1994.

They compared the 'quit rate' of people in the Tyne Tees, Yorkshire and Granada TV regions with those in the Central TV area, where the ads did not run. In the three regions showing the ad, they predicted that 7.45 per cent of smokers would quit and only 3.33 per cent of ex-smokers would relapse, while in the Central region 5 per cent would stop and 5 per cent of ex-smokers would relapse over an 18-month period.

The study concluded that a TV campaign could help reduce the proportion of smokers by 1.2 per cent to 26.8 per cent. TV ads were 'highly cost effective', compared with the financial drain on the NHS by smoking-related diseases.

However, the study suggested that the campaign was effective only after a sustained period of 18 months and that future bursts should run for that length of time.