Regardless of what you think of the "no-smoking" ads, evidently they work

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/09/cdc-hard-hitting-anti-smoking-ads-save-lives/

Graphic advertisements, featuring real people living with the debilitating and disfiguring effects of smoking, are saving lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

New research published in The Lancet medical journal suggests the first series of ads in the "Tips from Former Smokers" campaign has encouraged at least 100,000 smokers to successfully quit – twice the number CDC officials had expected.

"We think this is a testament to the incredible power of the real stories that these people told," said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "This is exactly what smokers had told us they thought would work the best to support them and motivate them to quit."​

Hard as some of them are to look at, they definitely get one's attention. I'd be curious to know how they figured out the number of people who decided to quit, as a result of the ads, though. Seems subjective to me, but maybe someone familiar with demographics and statistics can explain it.