title: How does the emotive content of televised anti-smoking mass media campaigns influence monthly calls to the NHS Stop Smoking helpline in England?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effects of different types of televised mass media campaign content on calls to the English NHS Stop Smoking helpline.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used UK government-funded televised tobacco control campaigns from April 2005 to April 2010, categorised as either "positive" (eliciting happiness, satisfaction or hope) or "negative" (eliciting fear, guilt or disgust). We built negative binomial generalised additive models (GAMs) with linear and smooth terms for monthly per capita exposure to each campaign type (expressed as Gross Ratings Points, or GRPs) to determine their effect on calls in the same month. We adjusted for seasonal trends, inflation-adjusted weighted average cigarette prices and other tobacco control policies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found non-linear associations between exposure to positive and negative emotive campaigns and quitline calls. The rate of calls increased more than 50% as exposure to positive campaigns increased from 0 to 400 GRPs (rate ratio: 1.58, 95% CI: 1.25-2.01). An increase in calls in response to negative emotive campaigns was only apparent after monthly exposure exceeded 400 GRPs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While positive campaigns were most effective at increasing quitline calls, those with negative emotive content were also found to impact on call rates but only at higher levels of exposure.
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham NG5 1PB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: sol.richardson@cantab.net.
authors.forename: Sol
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham NG5 1PB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: tessa.langley@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Tessa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Langley
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham NG5 1PB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: lisa.szatkowski@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Szatkowski
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom. Electronic address: m.sims@bath.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sims
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Department for Health, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom. Electronic address: a.gilmore@bath.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gilmore
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, 16 de Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, United Kingdom. Electronic address: ann.mcneill@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McNeill
authors.affiliation: UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham NG5 1PB, United Kingdom. Electronic address: sarah.lewis@nottingham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising; D004644:Emotions; D004739:England; D006293:Health Promotion; D015277:Hotlines / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D013690:Television
keywords: Emotions; Health promotion; Mass media; Quitline; Smoking cessation