Advocacy lights and milds Edwina Pearse Quit Victoria

Advocacy - lights and milds Edwina Pearse – Quit Victoria Jonathan Liberman – Vic. Health Centre for Tobacco Control Todd Harper - Vic. Health September 6 2007

The Age, Friday 13 May, 2005

A refresher – what the ACCC brokered with the tobacco industry • May 2005 • ACCC announces Philip Morris and BAT will pay AUD$4 m each towards an Advertising campaign to remedy the misleading use of terms such as light and mild. Agree to not use wide (but not complete) list of similar terms • November 2005 • Imperial Tobacco Australia also agrees similar conditions and contributes $1 m to education campaign. • December 2005 • The ACCC’s Tobacco Education Program consumer awareness campaign launched. $500, 000 was allocated to Quitlines to assist with the extra call volume.

The ACCC outcome wasn’t perfect, but……what went right? • Why did the ACCC take action? • What elements of the research, policy, program, advocacy strategy worked? • What can we learn from a (largely) successful advocacy strategy?

Material analysed: 2000 - 2006 • Five letters and 3 submissions to the ACCC • Eight media releases • Five page one print stories, many other prominent stories • One Senate inquiry • Questions in Senate Estimates • Research prepared by the Cancer Council Victoria for ACCC • 5+ Meetings with ACCC staff; countless emails • Significant contributions by other organisations

A more recent genesis of the lights and milds campaign? • In 2000, David Hill and Ron Borland are members of a Australian Government advisory committee concerned with new health warnings. • This committee includes ACCC representatives. • Ron Borland points out that the tobacco companies have distorted the relationships between the ISO standard measures required to be on packs largely through filter venting, and that the evidence demonstrates that the measures are misleading and deceptive

Deficiencies of this analysis • Doesn’t include the views of the ACCC • It does not in any way capture the large amount of work undertaken by many agencies to achieve this outcome • Focuses largely on the efforts of Cancer Council Victoria agencies – Quit Victoria and the Vic. Health Centre for Tobacco Control

Creating a platform that enables communication to Government: 1) Creating the push strategies for getting research / knowledge to Government 2) Creating a demand of the research - a pull - from advocates 3) Establishing a meaningful platform in which the push-pull can occur – eg media, direct communication, stakeholders Adapted from Lavis et al

ACCC Market (Target) 1. 2. Message 3. 4. Medium (Platform) Ban use terms such as lights and milds Tobacco Companies to fund corrective advertising campaign. Tobacco Companies to pay damages for past and ongoing harms, and for cessation programs Ban the use of ISO measurements Direct Communication (or lobbying): ACCC Media Advocacy: Content, context, credibility Direct Communication Media Advocacy Media Stakeholders: Health groups, Tobacco Control, Groups, MPs How to make the issue attractive to media: • Content • Context • Credibility

Timely research – TI document searching

An “push-pull” advocacy platform • A “platform” where advocates are able to push or supply knowledge • Knowledge users (ACCC) more likely to pull or demand knowledge when multiple strategies align, eg direct communication (lobbying), media advocacy, stakeholder engagement • Media appeared to create a platform for engagement – timely research, relevant to the ACCC investigation Adapted from Lavis et al

An advocacy platform - research • • • Content: Survey work on the prevalence of lights consumption Legal research on regulatory options Industry document research highlighting industry conduct Context: New data, research release timed to coincide with key points in ACCC investigation • Credibility • Maintaining trusting relationships to ensure relevant, reliable, accurate information is available

Using media to create an advocacy platform • Context: producing timely research, technical assistance, media advocacy. Is this issue on the current agenda of the ACCC? • Content: ability to address information needs of the ACCC. What are the ACCC’s information needs? • Credibility: reliability of the information sources. Can the ACCC rely on the quality of this information?

ACCC Market (Target) 1. 2. Message 3. 4. Medium (Platform) Ban use terms such as lights and milds Tobacco Companies to fund corrective advertising campaign. Tobacco Companies to pay damages for past and ongoing harms, and for cessation programs Ban the use of ISO measurements Direct Communication: ACCC Media Advocacy: Content, context, credibility Direct Communication Media Advocacy Media Stakeholders: Health groups, Tobacco Control, Groups, MPs How to make the issue attractive to media: • Content • Context • Credibility

Fertile advocacy • Where there is a push-pull relationship with Government, regulatory agencies • Conceptually, this can occur on an ‘advocacy platform’ which can be relationship-based, media-based or through other stakeholders • Importance of aligning media advocacy, direct communication, stakeholder strategies

Contact details Edwina Pearse edwina. pearse@cancervic. org. au Jonathan Liberman Jonathan. liberman@cancervic. org. au Todd Harper tharper@vichealth. vic. gov. au Thank you