Bob Quits Reality Show Smoking Cessation Blog

This weekend I was in New York City, where the streets were plastered with posters for Bob Quits, an extensive multimedia quit-smoking campaign. What's most interesting about the public health effort is its approach — in addition to the bright yellow posters “Bob vs. Goliath” plastered all over Manhattan, the web component of the campaign combines two popular recent media forms — the weblog and the reality show. The site includes daily blog posts and edited video clips from the life of a Queens man as he quits smoking. Of course, it did make me wonder — what if Bob gave up on the third day? And the site does note that “This is not in real time but accurately reflects the daily story of his quitting experience.” Although there are probably more compelling reality shows (and plenty of banal ones) and better and less-orchestrated blogs, it's an interesting approach to the public-interest format.