Anti-smoking campaign by the CDC -- did it help?

Did an aggressive anti-smoking campaign conducted earlier this year influence people to give up smoking? There's a good chance the $54-million campaign by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did have an effect, an article in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports. But it was short -- just three months long.

And the impressive-sounding $54 million pales in comparison to the $27 million spent every day by the tobacco industry for marketing, the authors wrote. Nancy Rigotti and Melanie Wakefield described the campaign in the Annals of Internal Medicine, as well as what's known about its outcome so far. (The authors are at Massachusetts General Hospital and Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, respectively.)

It featured personal stories by people affected by smoking and was transmitted on TV and radio, on billboards and in print, and through Facebook and Twitter. People like Brandon, who lost his feet and fingertips from the smoking-related condition called Buerger's disease -- which affects blood vessels in the hands and feet. People with head and neck cancers. People who were smokers and who managed to quit. They all told their stories.