Using direct mail to prompt smokers to call a quitline.

Telephone quitlines efficiently deliver cessation services, but few smokers use them. This article describes an unsolicited direct mail campaign designed to increase calls to the New York State Smokers' Quitline. Two post-cards advertising the quitline and the availability of free nicotine patches were sent to 77,527 smoker households between August and October 2005.

Giving away free nicotine medications and a cigarette substitute (Better Quit) to promote calls to a quitline.

This article presents results from two population-based promotions for free cessation products used to induce smokers to call the New York State Smokers'. The first promotion was a press announcement urging smokers to call the quitline to get a voucher for a free 2-week supply of nicotine patches or gum (nicotine replacement therapy [NRT]). The second promotion involved comparing response to two newspaper advertisements for the quitline, one of which offered a free stop smoking guide and one that offered the guide plus a free stop smoking aide called Better Quit (BQ).