Effective Mass Media Advertising campaigns for Tobacco Control

About This Resource
Mass media campaigns are an effective tobacco control strategy. They increase knowledge of the health risks of tobacco use, encourage quitting and motivate change in both smokers and non-smokers.

This resource presents a selection of effective tobacco control mass media TV ads suitable for adaptation and use in low- and middle-income countries. It can also be used as a resource to support concept development for new campaigns.

Selection Process
In April 2007, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) convened a group of international experts to form the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use Mass Media Taskforce and to contribute to a “best practice” resource for tobacco control mass media. The Taskforce, made up of both social marketing experts and professionals working on tobacco control in priority countries, has an ongoing role in recommending TV advertisements for inclusion in the resource. The campaigns presented here were selected based on several factors, including campaign effectiveness, measurable impact, ease of adaptability, and/or potential ad concepts. From this collection, governments, health communications practitioners, and others can select advertisements for pre-testing in their countries.

The compilation includes campaigns that:

Improve knowledge of the health risks of tobacco use
Motivate behavior change
Encourage quitting
Build support for effective tobacco control policies; in particular, smoke-free policies
Have adults as their primary target—adult-focused, hard-hitting ads are known to also have an impact on youth
Change the image of tobacco, the tobacco industry and tobacco use

TVAs included were scored on the basis of:

Evidence of their impact and effectiveness,
Potential for adaptation in priority countries,
And/or acceptability to the target audience.

For more information and technical assistance on planning, implementing and evaluating effective mass media campaigns for tobacco control, please contact WLF at massmedia@worldlungfoundation.org.

Union Tobacco Control Mass Media Taskforce
Pham Thi Hoang Anh
Greg Connolly
Patricia Cotter
Elena Dmitrieva
Karen Gutierrez
Fitri Putjuk
Gary Saffitz
Mohammed Shahjahan
Hassan El Sheikh
Melanie Wakefield
Jane Webb

Published by WLF and IUATLD (The Union), 2008.
Compiled with the collaboration of the Cancer Institute NSW, Australia.
This resource is intended for educational purposes only. Commercial use is not permitted.

Credits
WLF Communications Team :
Jorge Alday
Yvette Chang
Stephen Hamill
Mego Lien
Sandra Mullin
Rebecca Perl

The Union, Tobacco Control Team:
Dr. Sinéad Jones
Tuija Tengvall

Cancer Institute, NSW :
Patricia Cotter
Anita Dessaix