Moving the needle: How a national tobacco education campaign increased quit attempts and reduced cigarette consumption

Between March and June 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the “Tips From Former Smokers,” (Tips) media campaign with sufficient placement to reach 75% of adults nationally with multiple ads. Tips featured emotional, graphic, true stories by former smokers suffering from smoking-related diseases and aimed to increase awareness about damage caused by smoking, encourage quitting and motivate nonsmokers to support loved ones to quit. Tips ads emphasized that smoking can affect anyone, regardless of age. Many of the ad participants started smoking in their early teens, and some were diagnosed with life-altering diseases before they were 40.

We will present key components of Tips campaign development, implementation, and evaluation, including the use of digital media. Response to Tips was immediate and intense, with overall call volume to 1-800-Quit-Now more than doubling during the campaign and visits to the website (www.smokefree.gov) increasing more than five times compared to the same 12-week period in 2011. Tips resulted in an estimated 1.6 million smokers making a quit attempt and 30 million fewer cigarettes smoked per day nationally. Additionally, Tips resulted in an estimated 4.5 million nonsmokers recommending cessation service and more than 6 million talking with friends/family about dangers of smoking.

CDC is airing a second round of advertisements in the spring of 2013. “Tips 2” expands on the first campaign and features additional health conditions (COPD, asthma in adults, smoking-related complications in a person with diabetes) and population groups. (American Indian/Alaska Native, LGBT) not highlighted in Tips 1.