Evaluation of the pilot phase of the 'Give up smokes for good' social marketing campaign

Issue addressed: The prevalence of tobacco smoking among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia is comparatively high. To help combat this, an Aboriginal-specific social marketing campaign, ‘Give up smokes for good’, was piloted in South Australia in 2011. Methods: To evaluate the campaign, a face-to-face survey was conducted with two samples of convenience through Aboriginal Health services in South Australia (city and regional locations; n = 190). Surveys assessed the cultural appropriateness of the campaign, campaign awareness and recognition, knowledge of the harms of smoking and smoking/quit smoking behaviours. Results: Campaign awareness was high with 76.3% of participants aware of at least one aspect of the campaign. Participants indicated campaign materials (posters and radio ads) to be culturally appropriate. Knowledge that smoking and passive smoking caused illness was high (85.8% and 86.8%); however, knowledge of specific illnesses was not as high. Large proportions of participants had imposed bans on smoking in homes (73.2%) and in cars (75.9%). Conclusions: Our findings suggest the ‘Give up smokes for good’ campaign reached the intended audience with high levels of campaign awareness. Results also suggest the pilot campaign made progress in achieving its communication objectives. So what?: High quality, culturally targeted anti-tobacco poster and radio campaigns can be effective ways to reach Aboriginal Australians. Future research could explore the impact of this type of social marketing campaign, particularly in regards to the impact on quitting intention and behaviour.Lauren Maksimovic, Damien Shen, Mark Bandick, Kerry Ettridge and Marion Ecker