Publications and Evaluation Results about the Tips Campaign By Campaign Year
By Tips Campaign Year
Cumulative
- Cost Effectiveness of the Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign—United States, 2012−2018external icon
Published: January 13, 2021
Summary: Mass-reach health education campaigns, such as CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers®, can help people who smoke quit, improve health outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs.
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- During 2012–2018, CDC’s Tips campaign helped prevent an estimated 129,000 early deaths and helped save an estimated $7.3 billion in smoking-related healthcare costs.
- The Tips campaign was also associated with healthcare cost savings of $11,400 per lifetime quit, and $5,300 per quality-adjusted life year gained.
- For every $3,800 spent on the Tips campaign between 2012-2018, we prevented an early death. The 2021 cost-effectiveness study factored in smoking relapse, inflation, and advertising and evaluation costs.
- Infographic – Impact of CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign pdf icon[PDF – 438 KB]
- Association between the Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign and Smoking Cessation Among Adults, United States, 2012–2018
Published: August 27, 2020
Summary: During 2012–2018, CDC’s Tips® campaign was associated with an estimated 1 million sustained quits and 16.4 million quit attempts among U.S. adults.- Mass media campaigns, such as the Tips campaign, can increase smoking quit attempts and sustained quits as part of a comprehensive approach to reducing smoking-related diseases and premature deaths in the United States.
- Continued implementation of evidence-based smoking cessation campaigns, including the Tips campaign, could accelerate progress toward reducing rates of smoking-related diseases and premature deaths.
- Evidence of the Impact of the Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Published: October 10, 2019
Summary: A dose-response relationship between Tips From Former Smokers® (Tips®) campaign exposure and attempts to quit smoking among U.S. adult participants in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) was reported validating previous campaign findings.- Several studies have used multiple methods to demonstrate the campaign’s impact on cessation behavior; while these studies relied on probability-based web samples, this is the first Tips study to use a nationally representative surveillance system, BRFSS. BRFSS is the largest continuously conducted health survey system in the world.
- This study affirms that the more exposure to Tips that people who smoke receive, the more likely they are to make an attempt to quit smoking cigarettes.
- Impact of U.S. Antismoking TV Ads on Spanish-Language Quitline Callsexternal icon
Published: September 18, 2018
Summary: Call volume more than doubled during the airing of Spanish-language Tips® TV ads that highlighted the health consequences of smoking and secondhand smoke and promoted 1-855-DÉJELO-YA, a national portal that routes Spanish-speaking callers to Spanish-language services available from their state quitlines.
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- Promoting 1-855-DÉJELO-YA in antismoking Spanish-language ads can increase call volume and help to increase Spanish speakers’ access to evidence-based cessation services, as described in this first national study.
- The ads highlighting the health consequences of smoking had a higher impact on call volume, suggesting that this messaging strategy may be effective across population groups.
- Impact of the Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign on Population-Level Smoking Cessation, 2012–2015
Published: May 31, 2018
Summary: During 2012–2015, the CDC’s Tips® campaign was associated with over half a million sustained quits among U.S. adult smokers, and over 9 million quit attempts.- These findings indicate that the Tips campaign’s comprehensive approach to combining evidence-based messages with the promotion of cessation resources, such as 1-800-QUIT-NOW quitline and other resources on the campaign’s website, has been successful in achieving substantial long-term cigarette cessation at the population level over multiple years.
- Association Between Media Doses of the Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign and Cessation Behaviors and Intentions to Quit Among Cigarette Smokers, 2012 –2015external icon
Published: May 12, 2017
Summary: An assessment of the varied doses of the Tips campaign found that an increase of 1,000 quarterly gross rating points was associated with 14% increased odds of a quit attempt and 12% increased odds of intending to quit in next 30 days.- Campaign effects did not differ by subgroups of race/ethnicity, education, or mental health, suggesting the campaign serves multiple groups equally well.
- In addition, the messaging and effects of the campaign are durable; that is, the Tips campaign continues to have a substantial impact on cessation behaviors among U.S. adult smokers over time.
- Messages about the negative health consequences of smoking are effective when delivered at media doses consistent with CDC Best Practices, which is an important guideline for campaign implementation.
2016 Tips Campaign
- Differences in Quitline Registrants’ Characteristics During National Radio Versus Television Antismoking Campaignsexternal icon
Published: March 1, 2021
Summary: Radio and TV played a complementary role in promoting tobacco cessation, as determined in a study about quitline registrants who reported hearing Tips advertisements. The ads featured free cessation medication that aired nationally on radio for 2 weeks in 2016 and on TV for 3 weeks in 2017.
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- Quitline registrants who reported hearing about the quitline from radio advertisements were more likely to be male, younger, and have more years of education; the registrants who reported hearing about the quitline from TV advertisements were more likely to be Black, non-Hispanic, and have fewer years of education.
- This study about quitline registrants reinforces the importance of considering the intended audience when selecting the optimal mix of media.
- The 2016 Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign: Associations with Quit Intentions and Quit Attempts among Smokers with and without Mental Health Conditionsexternal icon
Published: November 28, 2018
Summary: This was the first population-level intervention to show that people with mental health conditions who smoke had increased quit attempts after reporting having seen a national TV ad featuring Tips® participant Rebecca M., a former smoker living with depression.
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- In 2016, the Tips campaign ran ads designed to motivate smokers with mental health conditions, specifically people living with anxiety or depression, to try to quit smoking. Rebecca, a former smoker from Florida who experienced tobacco-related tooth loss and gum disease and struggled with depression, was featured in these ads on television, radio, print, outdoor, and digital formats.
- These findings support including ads featuring people living with mental health conditions in national tobacco education media campaigns, such as the Tips
- The Tips campaign is an important population-level strategy for reaching specific population groups who are experiencing tobacco-related disparities.
2014 Tips Campaign
- Perceived Effectiveness of Antismoking Ads and Association with Quit Attempts Among Smokers: Evidence from the Tips From Former Smokers® Campaignexternal icon
Published: July 19, 2016
Summary: This is the first study to demonstrate an association between perceived effectiveness scores for antismoking ads and future quit attempts in a large, nationally representative sample of smokers.
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- Findings provide strong evidence that racial and ethnic minority subpopulations, including non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics, scored ads higher in perceived effectiveness regardless of race/ethnicity of the ad participant.
- Message characteristics (e.g., graphic visuals and emotional content) may play a more important role than race and ethnicity of ad participants.
- Evaluation of the National Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign: The 2014 Longitudinal Cohort
Published: March 24, 2016
Summary: After the launch of the nine-week-long 2014 Tips From Former Smokers® campaign, 1.83 million people who smoke attempted to quit and an estimated 104,000 Americans quit smoking.- The Tips campaign continues to have a significant impact on cessation-related behaviors, providing further justification for the continued use of tobacco education campaigns to accelerate progress toward the goal of reducing adult smoking in the United States.
2013 Tips Campaign
- Does Digital Video Advertising Increase Population-Level Reach of Multimedia Campaigns? Evidence From the 2013 Tips From Former Smokers® Campaignexternal icon
Published: September 14, 2016
Summary: The impact of increased doses of Tips® digital video and television advertising suggest that the use of digital advertising enhanced the overall exposure to the television-based campaign.
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- While digital video advertising was cost-efficient in generating awareness, the smaller size of the digital video viewer audience and the smaller effect of digital advertising exposure compared to television suggests that digital video advertising is best used as a complement to a television campaign and not as a replacement.
- Association Between Media Dose, Ad Tagging, and Changes in Web Traffic for a National Tobacco Education Campaign: A Market-Level Longitudinal Studyexternal icon
Published: February 17, 2016
Summary: In the average media market, an increase of 100 television GRPs per week for ads tagged with the Tips® campaign website URL was associated with an increase of 650 unique visitors, 769 total visits, and 1255 total page views per week.
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- Based on these findings, we estimated that the 16-week 2013 Tips television campaign generated approximately 660,000 unique visitors, 900,000 total visits, and 1,390,000 page views for the Tips campaign website.
- These findings may help campaign planners forecast the likely impact of targeted advertising efforts on consumers’ use of campaign-specific websites.
- Results demonstrated that a targeted digital strategy can help drive consumers to online resources promoted by the campaign.
- Increasing the Dose of Television Advertising in a National Antismoking Media Campaign: Results from a Randomised Field Trialexternal icon
Published: December 16, 2015
Summary: The effectiveness of higher doses of the 2013 Tips® campaign media (i.e. 2400 vs. 800 quarterly GRPs) demonstrated increased quit attempts among people who smoke, especially among African Americans.- Non-smokers reported increased conversations with family or friends about the dangers of smoking and had greater knowledge of smoking-related diseases at the higher media dose.
- This is the first study to demonstrate the effectiveness of a national tobacco education campaign using randomization at the media market level.
- Impact of a National Tobacco Education Campaign on Weekly Numbers of Quitline Calls and Website Visitors—United States, March 4-June 23, 2013
Published: September 20, 2013
Summary: The 16-week Tips From Former Smokers® campaign in 2013 led to 151,536 additional quitline calls and nearly 2.8 million additional unique Tips website visitors above pre-campaign levels.- During the 16-week campaign, the average weekly calls to the national quitline portal 1-800-QUIT-NOW and Tips website visitors increased by 75% and almost 38-fold, respectively, compared to the 4 weeks before the campaign, and quickly decreased almost to pre-campaign levels once the campaign was off the air.
- The results suggest that emotionally evocative tobacco education media campaigns featuring graphic images of the health effects of smoking can increase quitline calls and website visits, and that the campaign effects decrease rapidly once the campaign is off air.
2012 Tips Campaign
- Budgetary Impact from Multiple Perspectives of Sustained Antitobacco National Media Campaigns to Reduce the Harms of Cigarette Smokingexternal icon
Published: April 29, 2020
Summary: National antitobacco media campaigns, like CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers® campaign, could save society over $10 billion in healthcare costs over the course of 10 years.
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- Using a simulation model, the report shows that 1, 5 and 10-year antitobacco media campaigns, like the Tips From Former Smokers campaign, all yield net cost savings within 10 years. Multiyear campaigns yield substantially higher rates of population health benefits and cost savings than a 1-year campaign.
- The report estimated that a year-round national smoking cessation campaign of 10 years in duration would produce net savings of $10.4, $5.1, $1.4, $3.6 and $0.2 billion from the societal, all-payer, Medicare, Medicaid and private insurer perspectives, respectively, and could prevent 23,500 smoking-attributable deaths over the first 10 years.
- Evaluation of a federally funded mass media campaign and smoking cessation in pregnant women: a population-based study in three statesexternal icon
Published: December 19, 2017
Summary: Exposure to the Tips from Former Smokers® campaign was associated with increased smoking cessation among pregnant women.
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- Effects were found in several specific groups of pregnant women including adolescents under 18 years of age, Medicaid-insured women, and women with less than a high school education.
- This is the first study to examine the association between an evidence-based population-level smoking cessation campaign, and smoking cessation among pregnant women.
- The Impact of a National Tobacco Education Campaign on State-Specific Quitline Callsexternal icon
Published: May 13, 2016
Summary: Nationally during the 2012 Tips® campaign, every 100 Tips GRPs per week at the market level was associated with an average of 45 additional quitline calls in each area code.
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- This study demonstrates that the 2012 Tips campaign was associated with significant increases in quitline calls in 46 states and the District of Columbia.
- The Influence of State-Specific Quitline Numbers on Call Volumes During a National Tobacco Education Campaign Promoting 1-800-QUIT-NOWexternal icon
Published: April 12, 2016
Summary: Having a state-specific quitline number other than 1-800-QUIT-NOW did not affect the rate of increase in calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW during the promotion of that number in the Tips From Former Smokers® campaign.
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- The findings suggest that when assessing the effects of a tobacco education media campaign promoting a quitline resource in states with multiple numbers and nationally, it is important to consider effects on all quitline numbers to fully estimate the campaign’s effects on quitline utilization.
- In California, Tips® GRPs correlated positively with calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW and to 1-800-NO-BUTTS.
- Does Digital Ad Exposure Influence Information-Seeking Behavior Online? Evidence From the 2012 Tips From Former Smokers® National Tobacco Prevention Campaignexternal icon
Published: March 16, 2016
Summary: Study results suggest that online ad exposure to Tips® 2012 digital display and search ads was associated with confirmed visits to the Tips 2012 campaign sites and visits to other cessation websites.
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- Information-seeking behaviors occurred up to several weeks after ad exposure.
- Web behavior data from online panels were useful for examining exposure and behavioral responses to digital campaign ads.
- The Dose-Response Relationship Between Tobacco Education Advertising and Calls to Quitlines in the United States, March-June, 2012
Published: November 5, 2015
Summary: During the Tips® campaign from March-June 2012, an additional 100 television GRPs per week for quitline-tagged ads was associated with an increase of 89 calls per week, and Smokefree.gov-tagged ads were associated with an increase of 29 calls per week in a typical area code.
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- The Tips campaign was estimated to account for more than 170,000 additional calls to 1–800-QUIT-NOW during the campaign, and if all ads were tagged with 1–800-QUIT-NOW, approximately 140,000 additional calls would have been generated.
- For campaign planners, these results make it possible to estimate 1) the likely impact of tobacco prevention media buys and 2) the additional quitline capacity needed at the national level should future campaigns of similar scale use 1–800-QUIT-NOW taglines exclusively.
- Cessation Outcomes Among Quitline Callers in Three States During a National Tobacco Education Campaign
Published: July 16, 2015
Summary: People who sought smoking cessation treatment from quitlines during the Tips® campaign achieved similar cessation outcomes, despite the possibility that they might be less committed to quitting. Enrolled callers had similar results, regardless of campaign exposure levels.- Antismoking mass media campaigns such as Tips are valuable for increasing exposure to quitlines, increasing the caller’s likelihood of making a quit attempt, and eventually quitting tobacco altogether.
- Impact of a U.S. Antismoking National Media Campaign on Beliefs, Cognitions and Quit Intentionsexternal icon
Published: May 13, 2015
Summary: Exposure to the 2012 Tips® campaign was associated with greater intentions to quit smoking within the next 30 days and next 6 months; quit intentions were stronger among respondents with greater campaign exposure.- Campaign exposure was also associated with significant changes in beliefs about smoking-related risks.
- Changes in Quitline Caller Characteristics During a National Tobacco Education Campaignexternal icon
Published: January 5, 2015
Summary: The number of callers during the 2012 Tips® campaign increased by 72% compared to 2011, and callers were twice as likely to hear about the quitline through television media.
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- The proportion of uninsured callers was higher during the Tips campaign than in 2011.
- In 2012, people who were aware of the campaign were slightly more likely to be non-Hispanic Blacks, younger than age 55 years, and uninsured compared with people who were not aware of the campaign.
- No differences were found in gender, age, race/ethnicity, preferred language, or education when comparing callers during the Tips campaign to 2011 callers.
- A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of the First Federally Funded Antismoking Campaignexternal icon
Published: December 10, 2014
Summary: Findings from this cost-effectiveness study of the 2012 Tips® campaign indicate that based on the number of people estimated to have quit smoking (about 100,000), the campaign will also prevent at least 17,000 premature deaths and help gain about 179,000 years of healthy life.
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- With total 2012 campaign costs of about $48 million, Tips spent approximately $480 per smoker who quit, $2,819 per premature death prevented, and $393 per year of life saved.
- Intermediate Cessation Outcomes Among Quitline Callers During a National Tobacco Education Campaignexternal icon
Published: July 8, 2014
Summary: From March 19-June 10, 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s first federally funded National Tobacco Education Campaign, Tips From Former Smokers®, reported greater numbers of callers having made 24-hour quit attempts or having quit for 7 days or longer during the campaign compared to similar weeks in 2011.
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- The number of quitline callers and callers who received counseling and/or nicotine replacement therapies increased by 88.6% (91,911 during Tips in 2012 vs. 48,738 in 2011) and 70.8% (69,254 during Tips in 2012 vs. 40,546 in 2011), respectively.
- Effect of the First Federally Funded US Antismoking National Media Campaignexternal icon
Published: September 9, 2013
Summary: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched the first-ever paid national tobacco education campaign, Tips From Former Smokers® (Tips®), for 3 months in March 2012. The Tips campaign shows real people living with serious long-term health effects from smoking and secondhand smoke exposure.- An estimated 1.64 million Americans made a quit attempt and approximately 100,000 smokers were expected to stay quit.
- An estimated 6 million nonsmokers talked with friends and family about the dangers of smoking, and an estimated 4.7 million additional nonsmokers recommended cessation services to their friends and family.
- Increases in Quitline Calls and Smoking Cessation Website Visitors During a National Tobacco Education Campaign—March 19–June 10, 2012
Published: August 31, 2012
Summary: This report indicates that an evidence-based national tobacco education media campaign with adequate reach and frequency led to significant increases in calls to a national portal for state quitlines and unique visitors to a cessation website.- Total call volume to the 1-800-QUIT-NOW quitline during the 2012 Tips From Former Smokers® campaign was 365,194 calls, compared to 157,675 calls during the corresponding 12 weeks in 2011, for a total of 207,519 additional calls, or a 132% increase.
- Compared to the corresponding weeks in 2011, weekly increases in calls to the quitline during the campaign ranged from 86% to 160%.
- The website received 629,898 unique visitors during the 2012 campaign, compared to 119,327 during the same period in 2011, for a total of 510,571 additional unique visitors, or a 428% increase.
For questions related to Tips® evaluation survey data, please send inquiries to tobaccomediacampaign@cdc.gov.
Page last reviewed: March 1, 2021