Fifty years since Smoking and health - Royal College of Physicians

12. Using mass media
to reduce tobacco use
Professor Melanie Wakefi eld Director, Centre for
Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria,
Melbourne, Australia
Mass media campaigns to promote quitting are important investments as part of
comprehensive tobacco control programmes to: educate about the harms of smoking;
set the agenda for discussion among community members and policy-makers; change
smoking beliefs and attitudes; increase quitting intentions and quit attempts; and
reduce youth and adult smoking prevalence. 1 The results of a forthcoming review of
mass media campaigns to infl uence adult smoking behaviour concludes that there has
been a further strengthening of the evidence that mass media campaigns conducted
in the context of comprehensive tobacco control programmes promote quitting
and reduce adult smoking prevalence, but that campaign reach, intensity, duration,
and message type may all infl uence success. 2 Achievement of suffi cient population
exposure is vital, both in terms of campaign intensity and duration, with television
remaining the primary channel to reach and infl uence adult smokers effectively.
Campaigns require ongoing investment to sustain a level of at least 1,200 gross ratings
points (GRPs)* per quarter, for a total of 4,800 GRPs per year, although greater investments
would be expected to yield proportionally larger returns. 2 Higher mass media campaign
exposure also appears to confer greater benefi t on socioeconomically disadvantaged
population subgroups. Studies also suggest that around 300 teenage GRPs per quarter may be
the minimum for detecting effects on smoking uptake among youth, with effects increasing
linearly until potentially beginning to diminish above 1,250 GRPs per quarter. For both youth
and adults, media campaigns require ongoing investment and refreshment rather than an
occasional stop–start approach, since effects decay quite rapidly once they are withdrawn. 3
Radio and ambient media are best used as adjuncts to televised campaigns, rather than
* See overleaf.
Using mass media to reduce tobacco use
© Royal College of Physicians 2012 39