A COFFIN-shaped "smokers' booth" has been placed outside an office block in a bid to scare away cigarette users.
It is hoped the chilling reminder outside the Quay Street building in Manchester city centre will discourage smokers from surrounding offices who hang around and leave behind a mess of rubbish and cigarette butts.
The company has resorted to shock tactics after four years of politely asking the smokers to go elsewhere.
Company boss Nigel Sarbutts, 39, said: "We are doing it because we are fed up with people smoking outside our offices. People are sitting on our window sills and somebody has even brought a bin out of their office to put their tabs in.
"We are in the image business. Our company works in advertising and PR. We have clients coming in and it just looks rubbish."
Mr Sarbutts said his own employees used a designated smoking room, but smokers from nearby offices gathered outside his building because an overhang there offered shelter. He hopes they will now get the message and find somewhere else to smoke.
Approval
Mr Sarbutts, managing director of PR firm Connectpoint, which is based in the building, said: "I hope it makes people stop and think. Maybe it will bring a smile to people's faces and some people will be shocked.
"I apologise to anyone offended, but it's a way of shocking people into action."
The stunt has won approval from anti-smoking campaigner Pat Karney.
He is head of the Health Department-funded Tobacco Free Alliance for Greater Manchester and is campaigning for a ban on smoking in all workplaces, including bars, restaurants and clubs in Manchester by 2006. He hopes Manchester will become Britain's first smoke-free city and has urged the council to create a by-law banning workplace smoking.
The move comes after the bereaved wife of a lung cancer victim gave evidence in a Scottish court against a tobacco firm.
Margaret McTear, from Ayrshire, claims the firm failed to warn her husband Alf of health dangers when he started smoking in the 1960s. She is seeking damages of £500,000 from the company.
Comments
Login or Register to comment
I think that it was an awesome idea and more places should make it a point to do things like this.
I agree entirely with the sentiment of discouraging smokers to hang around outside offices smoking and throwing the detritus of this filthy habit on to the pavement and entrances to buildings. If chocolate was banned in the workplace and I had to stand outsde to eat it I wouldn't throw the wrappers on the floor afterwards. Surely employers must want to give the correct image to customers and the public in general. It's anti-social and proven to be unhealthy to smokers and those around them - let's follow New York's example and ban it!
Brillant! i'm fed up of walking in and out of the office to a billow of smoke in my face and a hundred wet fag ends stuck to the bottom of my shoe! We need to get the point across and this looks like a fun way to do it! Well Done!
i saw this on local news and the only reason people are smoking outside this building is because of the very tidy receptionist, just thought id share that. done