Campaigns, as evaluated for this review, are mass media interventions that use brief, recurring messages to inform and motivate tobacco users to quit. Message content is developed through formative research, and the campaigns use paid airtime and print space (advertisements) and/or donated time and space (public service announcements). Campaigns can be combined with other interventions, such as an increase in excise tax, or additional community education efforts.

The Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends mass media campaigns when combined with other interventions based on strong evidence of effectiveness in:
• Reducing population consumption of tobacco products
• Increasing cessation among tobacco product users

This recommendation is based primarily on the effectiveness of long duration, high-intensity campaigns implemented and evaluated in three states (California, Massachusetts, and Oregon) in which use of mass media was coordinated with an excise tax increase and funding for other community- and school-based education programs.

The Task Force did not have enough evidence to determine whether the intervention is or is not effective. This does not mean that the intervention does not work, but rather that additional research is needed to determine whether or not the intervention is effective.

Cessation rates in the intervention group over a median follow-up of 14 months (range: 6 months to 5 years): median of 7.0% (range: 3.9% to 50%; 5 studies)
• Difference in cessation rates between intervention group participants and comparison group participants: median of 2.2 percentage points (range: -2.0 to 25.0 percentage points; 5 studies)
• Per capita consumption of cigarettes in intervention states decreased by a median of 12.8% compared to the rest of the United States (15 fewer packs per capita per year; range -9.0 to -20.4 packs per year) (3 studies)
• Difference in tobacco use prevalence between intervention population and a comparison population: median reduction of 3.4 percentage points (+0.2 to -7.0 percentage points; 5 studies)
• Difference in tobacco use prevalence before and after the intervention (in studies without a concurrent control population): median of reduction of 3.6 percentage points (2 studies)
• All of the qualifying studies evaluated the effectiveness of a mass media campaign either coordinated with or concurrent with other interventions, including:
- excise tax increases,
- community education programs such as the distribution of self-help cessation information, or
- individual/group counseling for cardiovascular disease risk factor reduction or for smoking cessation.