BACKGROUND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES: Vaping prevalence in Australia has increased significantly over recent years. In June 2024, federal politicians voted on the Vaping Reforms Bill, which proposed to close a legal loophole in the regulatory framework; ensuring vapes can only be purchased legally with a medical prescription from a General Practitioner, thereby ending the retail market.
In anticipation of this, the tobacco industry bankrolled a campaign which spread misinformation around the implications of the proposed laws to sway public perceptions. The Australian Council on Smoking and Health (ACOSH) developed a campaign to counter industry narrative and encourage politicians to support the Bill.
INTERVENTION OR RESPONSE: In the lead up to the Vaping Reforms Bill, ACOSH developed a multimedia campaign targeted specifically at politicians from parties that were either ambivalent towards, or against the Bill. ACOSH developed campaign materials with input from clinicians, policymakers, tobacco control experts, and public health organisations. The campaign aimed to highlight the way in which the reforms would safeguard young people and was delivered via social media, newspaper, and television.
RESULTS AND IMPACT: This presentation will describe key learnings and outcomes from the campaign, including evaluation details of campaign efforts. The intervention findings can be used to guide recommendations for how to deliver tobacco and vape-related political campaigns to advocate for evidence-based reforms in tobacco control.
CONCLUSIONS: The tobacco industry’s age-old tactics of interfering with public health policy are alive and well. It is crucial that advocates remain vigilant in their attempts to react to counter industry narrative at critical time points in the development of evidence-based tobacco control policy.
There is relatively little evidence about political campaigns that specifically target anti-tobacco and anti-vape legislation. This presentation will provide guidance for tobacco control and public health organisations that wish to engage in tobacco and vape-related political advocacy.