The uk's public health authorities think New Year's pledges are a good means to curb down smoking. They have ushered in the New Year with an anti-smoking ad which shows smokers being violently seized by a fish-hook and dragged to their traditional smoking spots.

The five-week campaign, which will be shown on tv, internet and billboards, comes seven months before a public smoking ban starts in England. The uk's public Health Minister Caroline Flint said: "We know that many smokers will be considering stopping smoking in January as part of their New Year resolutions and in advance of the smoke-free legislation being implemented on July 1, 2007.' She added, the adverts, "also include details of how to contact the uk's National Health Service's smoking cessation services'.

Meanwhile, a poll by the ngo ChildLine shows the most popular pledge children picked for their parents in 2007 was for them to stop smoking.