Response to anti-smoking campaign aimed at mothers with young children

Results are presented on the response to an anti-smoking media campaign designed to recruit women cigarette smokers with young children to call for information on quitting. The campaign utilized a mix of professionally produced broadcast and print materials which encouraged smokers to call the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service (CIS) for information on quitting. The campaign was implemented in seven of 14 media markets located in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Response to the campaign was gauged by monitoring calls to the New York and Pennsylvania area CIS offices from smokers residing in experimental and control media markets. Data available on the first 28 weeks of the 52 week campaign show that the number of calls for smoking cessation information was 10 times greater from experimental markets than from control markets. The campaign also appears to have been successful in reaching the target audience of mothers of young children. About one-third of calls received from experimental markets were from the target audience compared with 18% from the control markets. Nearly half of all the calls received from experimental markets came during a 3-week period when time was purchased to air television spots.