14.1 Social marketing and public education campaigns
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An initial community trial of the use of mass media advertising for health promotion was conducted in New South Wales in the late 1970s, including the first use of the well-known Sponge advertisement in the original 'Quit. for life' campaign.3 Since this initial trial the use of mass media advertising has been a common characteristic of tobacco control campaigns in Australia. Through the decades, formative research has been used more and more extensively to inform campaign design and development, and the campaigns have grown in sophistication and complexity. Tracking and other evaluation research has contributed significantly to the understanding of what campaigns can achieve and how campaigns work. Campaigns are now viewed as performing particular roles within national and state/territory comprehensive tobacco control strategies, to achieve prevention objectives as well as motivating and encouraging smokers to quit. In addition, these campaigns increase community understanding and recognition of the harms associated with tobacco smoking and facilitate the introduction of policy initiatives to reduce this harm.
To an increasing extent the body of knowledge generated through the field of social marketing for health behaviour change is being adopted in the development, implementation and evaluation of tobacco control campaigns. This application of social marketing incorporates theory and practice from the fields of psychology, sociology and commercial marketing and communications to achieve campaign aims.
Within a social marketing approach, campaigns are developed with a long term, strategic outlook, incorporating formative research to define the problem and guide the formulation of aims, objectives and strategic approach and to pre-test campaign communication materials.
Social marketing involves influencing the behaviour not only of individuals, but of groups, organisations and society as a whole.4 These campaigns work most effectively when they are part of an integrated multi-component strategy. Consistent with this thinking, social marketing plays an integral role in reducing the uptake of smoking and promoting and facilitating quitting within Australia's National Tobacco Strategy.5
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