The impact of anti-tobacco mass media campaigns: Feedback from a smokers’ panel
Author(s)
Tessa Langley, Monique Tomlinson and Linda Bauld
Presenter(s)
Tessa Langley Research Associate, UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, University of Nottingham
Abstract
There has been little research focus on anti-tobacco mass media campaigns run in England. Until April 2009, when a freeze was put on public health campaigns, the Department of Health funded a range of anti-tobacco campaigns advertising smoking cessation services and the health risks of active and passive smoking. The new Tobacco Control Plans suggests that the suspension of such campaigns will be lifted although funding might be reduced. In addition to this, pharmaceutical companies fund adverts for nicotine replacement therapy. We collated examples of advertising and, as part of a wider study, showed them to a panel of 24 current and recent ex-smokers in Bath, UK asking them to discuss whether they encouraged them to stop smoking. Panellists suggested that shocking adverts were most likely to make them stop smoking. Generally, stop smoking adverts were perceived as only likely to be effective in smokers already considering quitting. Some felt that both government and pharmaceutical company-funded adverts lacked credibility. Adverts highlighting the risks of passive smoking, particularly to children, were said to potentially change where they smoked, but not necessarily encourage quitting.
Further research into which campaigns are effective is required in order to ensure the success of future campaigns.
