'OK in a gallery ... but this is the surgery'

"I know smoking's going to make my veins fur up and my legs drop off, but I've tried giving up before - twice in fact," said Lucas Haddacks as he sat in the waiting room of the Torrington Speedwell clinic in Finchley, north London. "I know smoking will probably kill me. Just show me a way to quit for good and I'll show you a pig that flies."

"I know smoking's going to make my veins fur up and my legs drop off, but I've tried giving up before - twice in fact," said Lucas Haddacks as he sat in the waiting room of the Torrington Speedwell clinic in Finchley, north London. "I know smoking will probably kill me. Just show me a way to quit for good and I'll show you a pig that flies."

The World Health Organisation poster campaign is aimed at people like Mr Haddacks. It says that everyone knows why they should give up - but need to be told how to seek help and be encouraged to try the options, including hypnotherapy, nicotine patches and the new wonderdrug, Zyban.

But the responses to the posters of those waiting to see their doctor were not immediately encouraging. Mr Haddacks said: "I suppose they're OK to look at in an art gallery, but this is the doctor's. I can't say they make me want to see my doctor again or make me feel any more optimistic about quitting."

Tom Sandison, who smokes 10 cigarettes a day and is also looking to give up, was more upbeat. He liked the Still Life image by Lisa Milroy, featuring clay and oil paint that parodies the paraphernalia of smoking. "It's got everything there about smoking, but the other ones leave you wondering what they are about."

But Geoffrey Scott, who quit smoking by his own willpower three years ago, was bemused. "I don't think a lot of them. These wouldn't have prompted me to give up. Still Life is fine, butI don't see the relevance of the others."