‘There’s Nothing Social About Smoking’

By Abhijith, Carly, Gerard & MD

Understanding the Problem• “Social Smoking” is a pattern of

non-daily smoking driven extrinsically by an individual’s social influence.

• Youngsters from 18-25 are the most involved in social smoking

(Shiffman et al., 2015).

75% of Social smokers are at high risk to become regular

smokers

55% of the regular smokers started as social

smokers.

Motivations behind social smoking• Social activity than nicotine

dependence • Peer effect – Young adults who

have 2 friends that smoke are 6 times likely to become a social smoker than if they had no friends smoke.

• Stimulus controlled environmental cues that urge people to smoke

• Influence of alcohol• Unaware of the health risks of

social smoking

Current Challenges • Social smokers don’t consider themselves as smokers. In our survey we

found a staggering 87.34% don’t consider themselves as smokers, even though they engage themselves in social smoking

• 83% less likely to quit than regular smokers and believe they are not prone to harmful smoking-related disease.

• No comparative study on the health consequences of Social smoking has been done.

• No upstream or downstream measures taken against social smoking.

Previous attempts at behavior modification

• Quit the Denial – Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (2013)

https://youtu.be/C8JoQ7_aYPw?t=3s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8JoQ7_aYPw&feature=youtu.be&t=2m25s

Previous attempts at behavior modification

• It’s a Trap! – American Legacy Foundation (2015)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJ4MlXtF6A

‘There’s Nothing Social About Smoking’ Campaign

Educate and raise awareness about social smoking to the target market.

Objectives:• To decrease the amount of people

aged 16-30 who smoke socially• To increase the education about

the health effects and addiction trends to the target market

• To change the way people in the target market perceive social smoking

Target AudienceYoung adults aged 18-30 are significantly more likely to be occasional smokers rather then daily smokers compared with older adults. (Beiner & Albers, 2004, p.330)

Study in the US found 51% of 2401 student smokers were social smokers (Moran, 2004)

We chose the pre contemplative stage because both of our interview respondents had not even considered stopping social smoking.

Social smokers aged between 16-30 in the pre-

contemplation stage of change

Quantitative Data

Qualitative Research“I don’t think I will get addicted. I know myself and I know that I wouldn’t”. (Laura, 29, Social Smoker)

“When you are out drinking and being with friends, you are not really thinking about how smoking affects your health”. (Laura, 29, Social Smoker)

“I wouldn’t consider myself to be a smoker because I only do it occasionally in social situations or when I got out drinking with friends”. (Caitlyn, 19, Social Smoker)

“It’s just a fun thing to do when you’re with your friends having a few drinks and hanging out”. (Caitlyn, 19, Social Smoker)

Strategies• Television Commercials• Posters• Bar Coasters• Letter Box Pamphlets

Example of our coasters

BACK

FRONTExample of a poster

Social Media• Prime target group of 18-25 who are most prone or engaged in

social smoking. • Reaching more people through Facebook advertising, through

demographics and interests and redirecting them to our Website.• Constantly engaging the target audience through comments,

answering queries.• Primary motive of creating awareness that social smoking is

smoking.

Examples of social media

content

Cigarette Package Warnings

• A person who smokes one cigarette a day confronts the warning image 7000 to 8000 time a year.

• Cigarette packaging becomes less attractive, less attention grabbing and likely to promote cessation

• Graphical warning packages reduce cravings in an individual

Recommendations• More research on social smoking in Australia

• More upstream approaches towards reducing social smoking in Australia

References