Campaigns for women in the past tended to target the pregnant smoker, or to persuade mothers to quit to provide a positive example for their children, or to urge quitting because it looked plain ugly. These campaigns asked women to quit out of a sense of guilt, and tended to undermine confidence, rather than promote the benefits of a smokefree life.(81,94) The current theme in campaigns is to empower women, encouraging them to view quitting smoking as something positive they can do for themselves.
One example of this is the federally funded National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (now known as the National Drug Strategy), which addressed the issue of women and smoking in a $2 million national television and cinema advertising campaign launched in January 1990.(95) Aimed at girls aged between 12-15 (during the crucial experimental years) and young women aged 20-24 (with the highest smoking prevalence of all female subgroups at the time), the campaign promoted the positive nature of a life free of smoking, with the slogan 'Smoking -- who needs it?'. The campaign was designed to complement existing state-based programs.(96) Surveys undertaken prior to and following the campaign have shown significant increases in negative perceptions of smoking among the target audience, and an elevation in the percentage of young girls intending to reduce their rate of smoking(97) (see also Chapter 13).
Information on smoking directed to women can be disseminated through a wide variety of channels, including through community leaders, both official and popular, hospitals, community health centres and other health and medical groups, sporting groups, workers' health action groups, trade unions, youth groups, schools, women's groups, professional and business organisations.(98) Women's magazines, formerly associated with poor coverage of tobacco and health issues, may become important conduits of information now that they no longer carry tobacco advertising (see Section 16.6 above).
Some countries have introduced health warnings for cigarette packages with messages specifically aimed at women. For example, the UK warnings include 'Smoking when pregnant harms your baby' and the warnings used in the United States include 'Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight'.(99) The warning 'Smoking when pregnant harms your baby' is among the new set of rotating warnings which appear on Australian tobacco packages commencing in January 1995 (see also Chapter 5, Section 6).(100)
Sweden has warnings which target not only the pregnant smoker ('Smoking during pregnancy impedes the growth of the foetus and increases risk of miscarriage'), but women in general: 'The number of women who die of lung cancer is increasing dramatically. This is due to smoking'.(99)