Gleneagles Global Hospitals announces Second Edition of ‘S.O.O.N - Quit Tobacco’

On the occasion of ‘World No Tobacco Day’ 31^st May 2018, Gleneagles Global Hospitals, a Parkway Pantai Enterprise releases its month long creative campaign ‘S.O.O.N - Quit Tobacco’, in continuation with its last year’s initiative on this day.

S.O.O.N symbolizes Save Our Organs Now and this year’s theme of ‘World No Tobacco Day’ being ‘Tobacco and heart disease’, the campaign by Gleneagles Global Hospitals focuses on the impact that tobacco has on the cardiovascular health of people all over the world. Through the nationwide campaign of S.O.O.N, the hospital aims to increase awareness on feasible actions and measures that people can take to reduce the risks to heart health posed by tobacco.

This year’s campaign by Gleneagles Global hospitals delivers a sensitive message using strong creatives to educate people that smoking not only affects the lungs in a human body but eventually the most important organ “the heart”.  With an intention of diffusing a resilient message through a single key visual which depicts the lungs as ‘buildings’ and the heart as a ‘lush green forest’, the campaign is able to strike an emotional connect with the readers to reinforce the message.

The creative through its illustration, efficaciously connects with a human being’s life and surroundings. Gardens and forests are swamped to build high rise buildings, highways and resorts. Natural habitat is completely destructed due to human negligence and greed, causing irreversible damage. Similarly smoking or consumption of Tobacco is unerringly like encroachment, and it destructs the human body by directly targeting lungs, it further increases the blood pressure by thickening the arterial walls and weakens the heart muscles leading to a cardiac arrest. Through this campaign, Gleneagles Global Hospitals accurately correlates the ill effects of smoking and its impact on the health of a heart.

There are numerous lifestyle related issues that tobacco has on a person especially when it comes to the youth. According to WHO, smoking affects the young people’s physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance causing innumerable lifestyle concerns both directly and indirectly. The resting heart rates of young adult smokers are two to three beats per minute faster than non-smokers and are more likely to have seen a doctor or other health professionals for an emotional or psychological complaint.

Nearly 120 million Indian adults smoke, placing India second in number of smokers. According to the data from World Health Organization (WHO), the deaths related to cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is more than any other cause of death worldwide. Smoking caused about 1 million deaths in 2010 and about 70% of these deaths occurred at the ages of 30–69 years. Tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure contributes to approximately 12% of all heart disease deaths. Additionally, consumption of tobacco is the second leading cause of cardio vascular disease, after high blood pressure. Each year, globally, 7 million people are the victims of the tobacco epidemic and close to 9 lakhs are non-smokers who die from breathing second-hand smoke.

Speaking about the campaign, Dr. Ajay Bakshi, Chief Executive Officer India, Parkway Pantai commented, “Our aim at Gleneagles Global Hospitals is to ensure a better quality of life. All initiatives we do are for the people, to create a more aware and healthier society. Our No Tobacco Day initiative- S.O.O.N (Save Our Organs Now): Quit Tobacco’ not only aims at reaching out and creating awareness to the masses but also executing precautions and remedies regarding tobacco since it is a rising epidemic. ”