The rise and fall of tobacco control media campaigns, 1967 2006

Abstract

Extensive research has demonstrated that public education through media campaigns is an effective means to reduce smoking prevalence and tobacco consumption. Aggressive media campaigns that confront the tobacco industry's deceptive practices are most effective and are therefore a prime target for attack. The tobacco industry has attacked public tobacco control media campaigns since 1967, when the first public tobacco control media advertisements ran. Through studying tobacco control media campaigns in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Oregon, and of the American Legacy Foundation, we identified industry strategies to prevent a campaign's creation, limit the target audience and the content of the messages, limit or eliminate the campaign's funding, and pursue litigation against the campaigns. Tobacco control advocates must learn from the past and continue to confront the tobacco industry and its third-party allies to defend antitobacco media campaigns or, despite evidence of their effectiveness, they will be eliminated.

FIGURE 1—

Per capita cigarette consumption in the United States: 1963–2004. Source. Orzechowski and Walker. Note. ALF=American Legacy Foundation.

FIGURE 2—

Billions of 2005 dollars spent by the tobacco industry on advertising and promotions in the United States: 1963–2003. Source. Federal Trade Commission. Note. ALF=American Legacy Foundation. With the implementation of the Fairness Doctrine in 1970, the tobacco industry steadily increased its expenditures for advertising and promotions throughout the 1970s and 1980s; however, such expenditures began to climb quickly with the introduction of state tobacco control media campaigns in the 1990s.

Figure 3

These billboards illustrate the wide range of messages possible in tobacco control media campaigns. The top billboard, from California in 2001, illustrates the strategy of “industry manipulation,” which highlights the tobacco industry’s behavior. The bottom billboard, from 2002, was part of a weak media campaign in Michigan after Governor John Engler’s (R) political staff took control of the campaign, excluding the state health department’s staff from any involvement. Source. Photo courtesy of Ronald Davis.

Figure 3

These billboards illustrate the wide range of messages possible in tobacco control media campaigns. The top billboard, from California in 2001, illustrates the strategy of “industry manipulation,” which highlights the tobacco industry’s behavior. The bottom billboard, from 2002, was part of a weak media campaign in Michigan after Governor John Engler’s (R) political staff took control of the campaign, excluding the state health department’s staff from any involvement. Source. Photo courtesy of Ronald Davis.