The purpose of the campaign is to encourage primary health care providers and other clinicians to take an active role in helping their patients who smoke to quit.

The campaign reminds clinicians that effective treatment for tobacco dependence is available, and every patient who smokes should be offered effective treatment.

Research shows that when providers assist their patients to quit, patient success in quitting increases substantially.

Our research found that many clinicians are reluctant to assist their patients who smoke, assuming that patients don’t want to be “nagged” and will probably be resistant to help anyway. But smoking patients report increased satisfaction with their healthcare when their provider brings up smoking and offers help to quit. Most smokers expect and often want their doctor to ask about smoking.

This phase of the campaign emphasizes the degree to which patients are actually quite receptive to assistance from their doctor to quit tobacco. The headline Your Patients Are Listening and the oversized ear, serve to dramatize this point.