The Great American Smokeout is upon us and so too are a sea of quit smoking product advertisements. Sadly, the Great American Smokeout has been hijacked by pharmaceutical interests. Originally a day to stop smoking nicotine, it's been transformed into a day to use "replacement" nicotine, to toy with e-cigs or begin taking nicotine designer drugs that mimic nicotine.

What no quitting product ad dare tell smokers is the truth, that more smokers will succeed in quitting cold turkey this year than by all other stop smoking methods combined. Instead, as with Pfizer's tortoise and hare Chantix commercials, they'll try to convince smokers that their product prevailed in head-to-head competition against cold turkey quitters. Although badly needed, there were no such studies.

Take a close look at this table created by the American Cancer Society. Although dated, back then 91.4% of successful long-term ex-smokers reported having quit cold turkey.

Quitting product ads are designed to make smokers fear their natural quitting instincts. These products prevailed over study participants who joined seeking products promising that withdrawal would be less intense but were instead randomly assigned to receive a look-a-like placebo. Many participants had lengthy quitting histories. Those who had become experts at recognizing arrival of their withdrawal syndrome grew frustrated upon realizing they'd been given placebos. As you know, placebo isn't even a real quitting method.

The below quit smoking tips are a tiny sampling of the lessons available at WhyQuit, a totally free, all-volunteer, non-commercial quit smoking site that sells nothing and actually declines donations. Since mid-2000 WhyQuit has been the Internet's most popular cold turkey quitting destination. We invite you to explore WhyQuit and discover why.

---

---