Impact of the Tips From Former Smokers 2012 Campaign On Awareness and Use of Cessation Resources

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  In 2012, the CDC launched the first federally funded national tobacco prevention media campaign, called “Tips from Former Smokers.” The campaign was aired nationally from March to June, 2012 on cable television, radio, and in other channels including online, print, and outdoor media. Campaign ads featured former smokers sharing their stories about the daily challenges of living with smoking-related illnesses. To provide smokers with resources and information about quitting, Tips ads promoted the 1-800-QUIT-NOW telephone quitline portal and www.Smokefree.gov. Television ads that aired during daytime hours were generally tagged with the 1-800-QUIT-NOW number, corresponding with most state quitline business hours, while ads that aired during nights and weekends were tagged with www.Smokefree.gov. In this study, we examine the impact of the Tips campaign on smokers’ awareness of and use of these two cessation resources.

Methods:  We use two data sources to assess the impact of Tips 2012 on smokers’ awareness of and use of these cessation resources: 1) a national cohort of smokers conducted before and after the campaign; and 2) trend data on 1-800-QUIT-NOW call volume and unique visits to www.Smokefree.gov. A baseline assessment was conducted with the smoker cohort just prior to the launch of the Tips campaign with a follow-up assessment of the same smokers immediately after the campaign’s conclusion. Smokers were asked to report their awareness of these information resources. Descriptive and multivariate analyses were used to assess pre-post change in these outcomes as a result of the Tips campaign. We then analyzed pre- and post-campaign launch changes in weekly call volume and unique visits to www.Smokefree.gov. These trends were correlated with weekly campaign gross ratings points (GRPs), a measure of market-level advertising dose.

Results:  The percentage of smokers who indicated awareness of 1‑800-QUIT-NOW increased from 48.9% before the Tips 2012 campaign to 62.2% after the campaign. Similarly, the percentage of smokers aware of Smokefree.gov increased from 23.6% before the campaign to 40.2% after the campaign. These results are robust to potential confounders in multivariate analysis. Weekly average unique visitors to Smokefree.gov increased from 15,083 during the 2 weeks prior to the launch of Tips to an average of 52,492 weekly visits during the campaign. In addition, weekly visits to Smokefree.gov were highly correlated with weekly total Tips campaign GRPs and weekly GRPs for television ads that were tagged with the Smokefree.gov URL. Average calls per week increased from 127 per market during the 2 weeks before the Campaign to approximately 300 weekly calls per market during the Campaign. This pattern was correlated with weekly advertising GRPs for all ads and GRPs for ads tagged with the 1‑800-QUIT-NOW number.

Conclusions:  The Tips 2012campaign had a significant impact on smokers’ seeking of cessation information and resources. These findings reinforce prior research demonstrating that mass media can play a powerful role in promoting information seeking.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Mass media campaigns can be a significant driver of smokers’ utilization of cessation resources such as telephone quitlines and websites designed to help smokers quit.