BACKGROUND: While Australia is now renowned for world-leading anti-tobacco measures, including being the first jurisdiction to introduce plain packaging of cigarettes in 2012,it was not always at the forefront of tobacco control. This presentation traces the history of the process by which cigarette advertising on radio and television was banned in Australia in the mid-1970s, several years after similar legislative measures were introduced in comparable countries.
METHODS: This research uses the archive of the Cancer Council Victoria and other anti-cancer advocacy organisations, such as the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, along with official government records, and newspaper archives. It applies the innovative methodology of public health humanities to an historical case study. Public health humanities is a novel interdisciplinary framework in which historical studies are integrated with health promotion disciplines in order to solve complex health problems, such as tobacco control (Kehoe, Holbrook et al., 2023). It recognises that current health issues are shaped by past policies and socio-cultural contexts and uses insights into past successes and failures of health promotion campaigns, to better inform the development of future efforts.
RESULTS: This case study finds that an important milestone in cancer control was achieved over a process of several years using a combination of strategies, which included a highly innovative advertising campaign that targeted tobacco companies, pressured government to act and activated popular opinion, intense political lobbying and the repeated presentation of irrefutable scientific evidence.
CONCLUSIONS: The success of an innovative, persistent and multi-pronged campaign, which satirised Big Tobacco, applied pressure to politicians to enact regulatory legislation, appealed to public anxiety about youth smoking and was underpinned by compelling scientific evidence, offers insights for tackling contemporary tobacco control issues.