The Journey could do with better exposure, though, so that O&M's ambition of reaching out to potential victims of cancer is realised. DD Metro, Star TV, Zee TV and MTV are the television channels, which have offered to carry the ad on a complimentary basis.

This is how it goes. Two old men are seated in a bus while a smartly dressed youngster stands beside them. A popular film song of the '60s plays in the background. As the youth slowly moves to light a cigarette, the old men exchange a meaningful glance, and one of them rises to offer him a seat. The youngster is obviously flummoxed, but none of his awkward denials work. He accepts the favour with much reluctance and guilt. Then comes the punchline.

The voiceover softly suggests that one should be nice to smokers. After all, they lose seven minutes of their life every time they light up and have little time left anyway!

Mr Piyush Pandey, head of O&M Advertising, says the approach of `The Journey' is to make youngsters feel foolish about smoking, aside from realising that smoking and cancer are inextricably linked. He says the idea was put forward by Mr Sonal Dabral and executed by Mr Prasoon Pandey.

Despite the fact that there is an element of negative advertising in `The Journey', O&M is right when it says the ad does not preach, scare off or threaten the smoker. It merely makes him aware, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, that his health and longevity will, in all likelihood, be affected if he continues to smoke.

This view is endorsed by Dr Rajesh Mistry and Dr Raman Deshpande, both affiliated to Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital. Dr Mistry is professor of surgery, Head and Neck Service, at the hospital. He says he has found that 30 per cent of cancers in the head and neck region are related to tobacco usage, and these are entirely preventable if one gives up smoking. Dr Deshpande stresses that lung cancer is most common among smokers and because its treatment is usually expensive and hopeless, prevention is of paramount importance. Both doctors appreciate the shock value of `The Journey'.

For those who will only be swayed by hard statistics, the ad agency says that 45 per cent of cancers cases in men are related to smoking, and lung cancers cases form 10 per cent of these. It is not surprising considering that people who smoke up to one pack a day land up smoking no less than 7,300 cigarettes a year. Apparently, worldwide, tobacco will kill more than 1.5 million middle aged people in 2001 itself.

Of course, it will take more than a mere ad to persuade Mr Piyush Pandey himself to stop smoking or give up accepting cigarette companies as his clients! He has rendered his services to cigarette manufacturer Godfrey Phillips. Mr Pandey would like us to make a distinction between his role as an ad film-maker and a responsible public citizen. As for the bad habit, he thinks something might persuade him to give it up someday.