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What I will try to do is to present a base of information on the extent to which various smoking cessation services and messages are delivered. I will cover the major channels through which such services and messages are delivered, and I will talk about the benefits of each channel. I will also address what I perceive to be the need to enhance the effectiveness or volume of messages and programmes through those channels.
Mass media
Benefits
If we start with the mass media, the benefits include the wide reach and cost-effectiveness – and I use that latter term advisedly. What I refer to here is the likelihood that mass media messages on stopping smoking are more likely to get more people to stop smoking per dollar spent than other smoking cessation programmes and strategies. Ken Warner cited the best example: the anti-smoking public service announcements on television and radio in the late 1960s under the Federal Communications Commission’s Fairness Doctrine.1
Also, the mass media allow us to reach high- risk groups that are difficult to reach through other channels, such as unemployed people. Messages through the mass media augment, reinforce, and tie into other services and programmes, such as telephone hotlines and quit-smoking classes.
Current status
What’s the current status of messages being delivered through mass media? Mostly the messages are in the form of public service announcements produced by federal agencies (eg, the Office on Smoking and Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the National Cancer Institute; and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute), the voluntary health agencies, and State health departments.2,3
We have, to my knowledge, paid TV or radio messages or paid space on billboards in only three states. California spends about $16 million a year on a paid media campaign funded through their tobacco …