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 Past research has shown that anti-smoking mass media campaigns are
an effective public health intervention and work to reverse
misconceptions, researchers write in JAMA Network Open.
In 2006, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled in favor of the
Department of Justice in a lawsuit against the tobacco industry,
requiring cigarette companies to sponsor anti-smoking advertisements
in major newspapers, television, retail displays, cigarette packages
and their corporate websites in order to "correct" misleading
messages the industry had been putting out for decades.
After years of further litigation and appeals, the industry began
running newspaper and television ads in November 2017.
To assess the reach of these ads, researchers led by Sanjay Shete of
the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
surveyed a nationally-representative sample of 3,484 adults between
January and May 2018, during which time the ads were running.
Participants were asked whether they recalled seeing ads
specifically mentioning that a federal court had ordered tobacco
companies to make statements about the dangers of smoking
cigarettes.
The survey also asked if people remembered seeing ads focused on one
of five specific dangers of smoking: the harms of smoking; of
inhaling second-hand smoke; addictiveness; cigarette design that
enhances nicotine delivery; and the lack of harm-reduction with
light or low-tar cigarettes.
Only 40.6% of adults recalled seeing the advertisements. Exposure
was even lower among certain ethnic and socioeconomic groups
historically targeted by tobacco industry marketing.
Just 37% of people aged 18-34, about 35% of those with no more than
a high school diploma, and 38% of those with household income under
$35,000 a year reported having seen any of the ads.
Around half of current smokers had seen one or more of the ads, but
in this group, just 42% of Hispanic smokers had seen them.
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The study authors note that a three-month antismoking media campaign
entitled Tips from Former Smokers, which was run by the federal
government, reached 80% of current smokers despite its much shorter
duration compared to the tobacco industry's campaign.
"Anti-smoking campaigns run by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention or other government organizations in the past seem to
have had a much greater reach," Shete noted in a phone interview.
"It is possible that young people are no longer watching TV or
reading newspapers, and are getting their news on social media," he
noted.
Yale University neuroscientist Marina Picciotto said it wasn't
surprising that the tobacco-industry designed and sponsored ad
campaigns did not reach the "most vulnerable" users.
"The tobacco industry has been several steps ahead of regulation
since the first Surgeon General's report showing that smoking is
responsible for large-scale death of its users," said Picciotto, who
is former president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and
Tobacco.
"Compliance with a court-ordered advertising campaign could be
designed with an eye to keeping the message away from the eyes of
their most valuable consumers."
Because the survey data was elicited in batches, researchers were
also able to determine that people who responded several months
after the campaign was run were more likely to have seen the
advertisements.
"Two takeaways from the data are that advertisements need to run
over long periods in order to reach more people and that the media
used to broadcast them needs to be selected carefully to reach the
most relevant target audiences," Shete said.
"Tobacco industry-funded public awareness campaigns shouldn't be a
one-and-done thing."
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2TyWNsJ JAMA Network Open, online July 12,
2019.
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