A stop smoking campaign which shows a tumour growing from a cigarette will be launched today the first shock anti-smoking adverts since the fatty cigarette ad eight years ago.
According to the Department of Health (DoH), just 15 cigarettes can cause a mutation than can lead to cancerous tumours.
Chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies said smokers play Russian roulette with every cigarette.
She said: “This is a hard-hitting campaign to get at the hidden harms of smoking. People will see a man smoking and then a cancer growing out of the cigarette.
“That is what happens in people’s bodies. One in two smokers die from smoking, most from cancer.
“We know that people don’t personalise the harms of smoking and don’t understand what’s happening in their bodies. This will show them.”
The campaign is in response to statistics which show more than a third of smokers still think the health risks are greatly exaggerated, the DoH said.
Dame Sally described the figures as “absolutely shocking”.
The last graphic adverts, in 2004, showed fatty deposits being squeezed from a smoker’s artery and fat dripping from the end of cigarettes.
The following eight years have seen softer campaigns but the DoH says it believes the time is right to deliver a stronger message.
Dame Sally said: “It is extremely worrying that people still underestimate the serious health harms associated with smoking.”
The campaign, which cost £2.7 million, will run for nine weeks on television, billboards and online.
Dr Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, insisted the startling images in the ads are necessary.
“We have got to reduce the impact that tobacco has on the lives of far too many people,” he said.