We’ve all seen the ads featuring former smokers with horrific injuries due to smoking, or campaigns like the “Truth” campaign that exposed tobacco companies’ lies to consumers. But the question is, does advertising like this really work? Do anti-smoking campaigns influence people to quit smoking?

The number of smokers has dropped steadily since the Surgeon General’s first warning in the 1960s. However, in more recent years any changes have been minimal. Currently, about 20% of Americans smoke and that rate hasn’t decreased since 2005.
 

During this same time, funding for national anti-smoking ads decreased dramatically. Legacy, the foundation funded by the settlement between Big Tobacco and 46 states, saw its media budget drop by the tens of millions. State-by-state anti-tobacco campaigns have also been in decline, with average household exposure peaking in 2006 and 2007 and decreasing since then.
 

In 2008, The American Journal of Preventive Medicine analyzed the Truth campaign between the years 2000 and 2002. Researchers found that the campaign cost about $324 million -- but prevented roughly $1.9 billion in medical costs. That's an impressive return for any advertising campaign.
 

Researchers have also found that anti-smoking advertising campaigns have a huge effect on teens and young adults. Health economist Sherry Emery studied the impact of anti-smoking campaigns at the state level, and found that young adults "showed that higher levels of exposure to the state media campaigns were associated with less smoking and more anti-smoking attitudes and beliefs."

To further reduce the national smoking rate, the CDC and FDA are planning new anti-smoking efforts over the next several years. Both agencies are expected to spend upwards of $100 million on these new efforts The FDA plans to focus on at-risk and underserved populations, while the CDC will play up the new graphic warnings and focus on smoking’s ill health effects.

With $193 billion in medical costs and millions of smokers’ lives at stake, these new advertising campaigns -- and more consistent efforts at the state level -- will be worth every penny spent.