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Think. Don't Smoke.

Also: Philip Morris youth smoking prevention advertising

“Think. Don't Smoke.”

Philip Morris's youth smoking prevention TV campaign (about 1998-2002), run alongside the company's parent-targeted 'Talk. They'll Listen.' ads. Independent evaluations found it did not lower youth smoking and may have made teens more open to it, making it the standard example of industry-sponsored prevention advertising that backfires.

Years
1998–2002
Country
United States
Topic
Tobacco
Asks people to
Never start
Strategy
Simple instruction
Channel
TV
Audience
ParentsYouth
Youth 12-17; parents for the companion Talk. They'll Listen. ads.

Evidence

Quasi-experimentalHarmful

Two national surveys of 12-17-year-olds (Farrelly 2002): youth exposed to Philip Morris ads were more likely to be open to smoking, while those exposed to the truth campaign showed stronger anti-tobacco attitudes. Using national school survey data from 103,172 students in 1999-2002 (Wakefield 2006), youth-targeted tobacco-company ads had no beneficial effect. Each extra viewing of the parent-targeted ads was linked to lower perceived harm (OR 0.93), stronger intention to smoke (OR 1.12) and more past-30-day smoking (OR 1.12) among 10th and 12th graders.

Sponsor (who paid)

  • Philip Morris USA Industry, funder and creator

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Sources

  1. Farrelly MC et al. Getting to the truth: evaluating national tobacco countermarketing campaigns. Am J Public Health 2002;92(6):901-7 evaluation · 2002 · DOI 10.2105/ajph.92.6.901 · PMID 12036775
  2. Wakefield M et al. Effect of televised, tobacco company-funded smoking prevention advertising on youth smoking-related beliefs, intentions, and behavior. Am J Public Health 2006;96(12):2154-60 evaluation · 2006 · DOI 10.2105/AJPH.2005.083352 · PMID 17077405
  3. Davis KC, Farrelly MC, Messeri P, Duke J. The Impact of National Smoking Prevention Campaigns on Tobacco-Related Beliefs, Intentions to Smoke and Smoking Initiation: Results from a Longitudinal Survey of Youth in the United States. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2009 evaluation · 2009 · DOI 10.3390/ijerph6020722 · PMID 19440412
  4. Farrelly MC et al. Sustaining 'truth': changes in youth tobacco attitudes and smoking intentions after 3 years of a national antismoking campaign. Health Educ Res 2009;24(1):42-48 evaluation · 2009 · DOI 10.1093/her/cym087 · PMID 18203679

Research notes

Created 2026-10-22 by literature mining (PubMed/OpenAlex); evidence level, outcome and findings are paraphrased from the evaluation abstracts, full texts not read. No credits: no page naming an agency was checked. Start and end years are approximate (campaign ran during the 1998-2002 window covered by the evaluations); confirm against tobacco industry documents. The parent-targeted Talk. They'll Listen. ads could become their own case. Davis 2009 added 2026-10-22 (openalex-deep queue; DOI checked on Crossref and PMID via NCBI esummary 2026-10-22): longitudinal youth survey, recall of Think. Don't Smoke was associated with increased intentions to smoke soon, not with beliefs or initiation overall. Consistent with the existing harmful rating; evidence unchanged. Evaluation links reviewed 2026-10-22: added Farrelly 2009 (Sustaining truth; eight national surveys of 35,074 youths aged 12-17): exposure to Philip Morris ads was associated with more favorable beliefs and attitudes toward the tobacco industry. Consistent with the existing harmful rating; evidence unchanged.

Record cases/philip-morris-think-dont-smoke.json, updated 2026-10-22· Link to this campaign