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National Tobacco Campaign (Australia, 1997)

Also: Every cigarette is doing you damage · NTC

“Every cigarette is doing you damage.”

Australia's first national, federally led anti-smoking media campaign, launched June 1997 with federal, state and territory governments and Quit programmes. Graphic TV ads (artery, lung, tumour, brain) showed the damage each cigarette does now and drove smokers aged 18-40 to the Quitline.

Years
1997–now
Country
Australia
Budget
Phase one (June-November 1997) cost around $A9 million (Hurley & Matthews 2008).
Topic
Tobacco
Asks people to
Stop
Strategy
Cessation service linkFear appealPolicy paired
Channel
HotlineTVWebsite
Audience
AdultsYoung adults
Smokers aged 18-40.

Evidence

Quasi-experimentalPositive

Government evaluation (as summarised by Hurley & Matthews 2008) credits phase one with a 1.4 percentage-point fall in smoking prevalence, about 190,000 quitters; modelling put healthcare savings at $A740.6m against about $A9m cost. Scollo et al. (2003): prevalence fell more over phases one and two than tax changes alone predict. Donovan et al. (2003): continuous tracking (n=9,033) linked media weight to recall, and health-effects ads were more memorable than quitline ads. Wakefield et al. (2008), time series 1995-2006: about 390 GRPs a month of antismoking TV ads cut adult prevalence by 0.3 points. White et al. (2003): adolescents found the adult campaign relevant. The 1997 prevalence effect is pre/post, not controlled.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Australian Government (Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services) Foreign government, funder
  • State and territory governments and Quit campaigns Foreign government, partners

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Hill D, Carroll T. Australia's National Tobacco Campaign. Tob Control 2003;12(Suppl 2):ii9-14 history · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii9 · PMID 12878768
  2. Hurley SF, Matthews JP. Cost-effectiveness of the Australian National Tobacco Campaign. Tob Control 2008;17(6):379-84 evaluation · 2008 · DOI 10.1136/tc.2008.025213 · PMID 18719075
  3. Scollo M et al. Impact of tobacco tax reforms on tobacco prices and tobacco use in Australia. Tob Control 2003;12(Suppl 2):ii59-66 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii59 · PMID 12878775
  4. Donovan RJ et al. Continuous tracking of the Australian National Tobacco Campaign. Tob Control 2003;12(Suppl 2):ii30-9 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii30 · PMID 12878771
  5. White V et al. Do adult focused anti-smoking campaigns have an impact on adolescents? Tob Control 2003;12(Suppl 2):ii23-9 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii23 · PMID 12878770
  6. Wakefield MA et al. Impact of tobacco control policies and mass media campaigns on monthly adult smoking prevalence. Am J Public Health 2008;98(8):1443-50 evaluation · 2008 · DOI 10.2105/AJPH.2007.128991 · PMID 18556601
  7. Cancer Institute NSW: National Tobacco Campaign revised sponsor
  8. Wakefield et al. Recall and response of smokers and recent quitters to the Australian National Tobacco Campaign. Tobacco Control 2003 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii15 · PMID 12878769
  9. Borland et al. Understanding how mass media campaigns impact on smokers. Tobacco Control 2003 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii45 · PMID 12878773
  10. Miller CL et al. Uptake and effectiveness of the Australian telephone Quitline service in the context of a mass media campaign. Tob Control 2003 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii53 · PMID 12878774
  11. Carroll T, Rock B. Generating Quitline calls during Australia's National Tobacco Campaign: effects of television advertisement execution and programme placement. Tob Control 2003;12 Suppl 2:ii40-4 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii40 · PMID 12878772
  12. Wakefield M et al. Appraisal of anti-smoking advertising by youth at risk for regular smoking: a comparative study in the United States, Australia, and Britain. Tob Control 2003;12 Suppl 2:ii82-6 evaluation · 2003 · DOI 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_2.ii82 · PMID 12878778

Research notes

Creative agency NOT identified: Hill & Carroll full text is a scanned PDF (BMJ blocked; PMC page has no text), ACMI and Cancer Institute NSW pages name no agency. Brief lead suggested checking; no credit added. The ads were later licensed to many countries (e.g. 'Artery' in US state campaigns). endYear null because the National Tobacco Campaign brand continued in later phases (2006 graphic warnings, 2016 'Don't make smokes your story' for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smokers by Carbon Media, per Heris et al. in The Conversation 2023). Consider splitting later phases into their own records. 2 evaluation source(s) added 2026-10-22 from a duplicate record on the US re-run branch (PR #15), DOIs checked on Crossref. Evaluation sources added 2026-10-22 (citation snowballing / helpline pass): Miller 2003; evidence level and outcome unchanged. Reuse terms checked 2026-10-23 by an AI research pass for #47; not yet reviewed by a person.

Record cases/australia-national-tobacco-campaign-1997.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign