THE tax on cigarettes could soon go up as part of a Government campaign to force smokers to quit.

NSW Assistant Health Minister Verity Firth said yesterday putting up the cost of smoking would force many to quit.

"We do believe that the more expensive cigarettes are the harder they are for people to smoke them," she said as she launched a new graphic anti-smoking advertising campaign. "I will, of course, be raising that with my federal colleagues."

A graphic advertisement, which will begin airing tonight, aims to shock people into stopping smoking. It shows an operation to remove fatty build-ups in arteries leading to the brain and will also contain warnings that smoking doubles a person's risk of having a stroke. Smoking causes fatty build-ups in arteries that can cut blood flow to the brain, causing a stroke.

"This ad has already screened in Victoria where it got an 80 per cent recognition rate. People remember the message," Miss Firth said.

"Smoking is responsible for one-third of all strokes in NSW. Stroke is the second most common cause of death in Australia and the first most common cause of disability.

"Smoking kills 6600 people a year in NSW and there are 150 admissions to public hospitals every day from smoking-related illness.

"For every person who dies in a car accident, 10 die from smoking."

The ad is part of a $73 million four-year campaign. An estimated 150,000 people have quit smoking since the advertisements started in 2005.