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. 2015 Feb;105(2):e90-7.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302249.

Recall of anti-tobacco advertisements and effects on quitting behavior: results from the California smokers cohort

Eric C Leas  1 , Mark G Myers, David R Strong, C Richard Hofstetter, Wael K Al-Delaimy
Affiliations

Recall of anti-tobacco advertisements and effects on quitting behavior: results from the California smokers cohort

Eric C Leas et al. Am J Public Health. 2015 Feb.

Abstract

Objectives: We assessed whether an anti-tobacco television advertisement called "Stages," which depicted a woman giving a brief emotional narrative of her experiences with tobacco use, would be recalled more often and have a greater effect on smoking cessation than 3 other advertisements with different intended themes.

Methods: Our data were derived from a sample of 2596 California adult smokers. We used multivariable log-binomial and modified Poisson regression models to calculate respondents' probability of quitting as a result of advertisement recall.

Results: More respondents recalled the "Stages" ad (58.5%) than the 3 other ads (23.1%, 23.4%, and 25.6%; P<.001). Respondents who recalled "Stages" at baseline had a higher probability than those who did not recall the ad of making a quit attempt between baseline and follow-up (adjusted risk ratio [RR]=1.18; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.03, 1.34) and a higher probability of being in a period of smoking abstinence for at least a month at follow-up (adjusted RR=1.55; 95% CI=1.02, 2.37).

Conclusions: Anti-tobacco television advertisements that depict visceral and personal messages may be recalled by a larger percentage of smokers and may have a greater impact on smoking cessation than other types of advertisements.

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Figures

FIGURE 1—
FIGURE 1—
Estimates of the effects of advertisement recall on (a) quitting smoking intentionally for at least 1 day and (b) abstaining from smoking for at least 1 month at follow-up: California Smokers Cohort, 2012–2013. Note. ARR = adjusted risk ratio; CI = confidence interval. The sample size was n = 1000. Advertisement titles are in quotation marks and refer to 4 anti-smoking ads being aired on television in California. For panel b, we fit a modified Poisson model with robust variance error for prolonged smoking abstinence given the rarity of the outcome; 10 separate models were used, one for each combination of advertisement and quitting behavior. All modeled adjusted risk ratios simultaneously adjusted for age, education, gender, ethnicity, addiction, presence of children in the household, and presence of other smokers in the household.
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