In October 2003 a new governmental mass media campaign was launched in Norway. The campaign was targeting the tobacco industry, focusing on addiction, product manipulation and unethical marketing in a global perspective.
The campaign aims at exposing the tactics of the tobacco industry. The message
is “You can do what the industry fears the most: Stop buying their
products.” Individuals are encouraged to use their power as consumers to
stop buying the tobacco industry's products. However those who want to quit
need to be offered help. All the campaign ads therefore encourage people to
call the Norwegian Quitline or contact their physician.
The campaign was initiated by the Directorate for Health and Social Affairs in
Norway, and backed by the Ministry of Health. The key note speakers at the
first press meeting were former Director General of the WHO, Dr. Gro Harlem
Brundtland; the "Insider" Dr Jeffrey Wigand; the Norwegian
Minister of Health, Dagfinn Hoeybråten; and our Director Bjørn-Inge Larsen.
The new campaign includes, among other things, three TV ads and four cinema
ads. Additionally, the Directorate launched a website aimed at adolescents
www.tobakkdreper.no (which means "tobacco kills").
All the ads are translated into English. The mpeg versions you will find in
the column to the right. For Quicktime versions, please visit www.tobakkdreper.no/film.asp
Norway has lately focused more on mass media campaigns. In January 2003, our
campaign was based on the Australian "Every cigarette is doing you
damage". Survey evaluations have shown several positive trends, but not
statistically significant. In addition to the surveys we saw that twice as
many called the quitline, and twice as many purchased NRT and attended
cessation courses, compared to the previous year. In addition physicians
reported increased interest from patients. We also registered a decline in
the consumption of cigarettes of 4.5 % during the first 5 months of 2003,
compared to the first 5 months of 2002.
