App urges smokers to 'swap fags for swag' on No Smoking Day
Smokers are being encouraged to kick the habit with the help of a new smartphone app which shows them what items they could afford with their smoking savings.
The free image recognition app, developed by the British Heart Foundation (BHF), virtually transforms a cigarette pack into a puff of smoke, before revealing items the smoker could afford with a week, month, or year's worth of savings.
An average 20-a-day smoker could save £7 a day, £49 a week, £210 a month and £2,555 a year if they quit, the BHF says.
With those savings they could afford a high-end haircut or therapeutic massage over a week, music festival tickets over a month and a World Cup trip over a year.
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Meanwhile a smoker who puffs on 35 a day could save £12 a day, £86 a week, £373 a month and £4,471 a year.
Launched on No Smoking Day, the app Blippar aims to encourage cigarette-lovers to think about how much money they could save if they quit.
The app forms part of the charity’s campaign “swap fags for swag”, which encourages smokers to think about what they could treat themselves to with the savings they’d make if they kicked the habit - from a new camera over a month to a luxury cruise over a year.
This video shows how the app works:
Some 18.4 per cent of adults in Bath and North East Somerset smoke and 10.4 per cent of mothers in the region known to smoke do so during pregnancy, according to data from the Department of Health.
To mark the 30th No Smoking Day campaign the BHF has released a new report which shows after decades of declining smoking rates, the UK has hit a six-year plateau in prevalence at around 20 per cent.
The report shows one in four surveyed smokers have lost count of the number of times they’ve tried to quit and one in 10 say they’re desperate to kick the habit.
Eight in 10 surveyed smokers say they’ve tried and failed to quit, and two fifths have made between four and 21 or more attempts.
Of the new data from more than 2,000 smokers, a quarter said the financial impact of smoking is more of a motivator to quit than the effects on their long-term health.
Approximately 10 million UK adults smoke but two thirds of smokers want to give up, the BHF says.
Smokers who want to find out more can visit WeQuit.co.uk or call the free helpline on 0800 434 6677.
The smartphone app can be downloaded here.
Comments
by wheelie_bin
Thursday, March 14 2013, 10:01AM
“I'm hoping to develop an app that turns an i-phone into one of those electonic cigarettes followed by an app that turns a i-phone into a suppository when it is used on a train!”