Results of an antismoking media campaign utilizing the Cancer Information Service

Abstract

In this paper, results are presented on the response to an antismoking media campaign designed to encourage women cigarette smokers with young children to call for information on quitting. The intervention campaign used a mix of professionally produced broadcast and print materials that encouraged smokers to call the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service (CIS) for information on quitting. The campaign was implemented in seven media markets in New York state, Pennsylvania, and Delaware; each of these markets was paired with a control market in one of the three states. Response to the campaign was gauged by monitoring calls to the New York and Pennsylvania area CIS offices from smokers residing in intervention and control media markets. Results from the 46-week campaign show that the number of calls for smoking-cessation information was five times greater from intervention markets than from control markets. The campaign also was successful in reaching the target audience of mothers of young children. Twenty-nine percent of calls received from intervention markets were from the target audience compared with 10% from the control markets. Forty-four percent of all calls received from intervention markets came during a 5-week period when time was purchased to air television spots.