The Mass Media is the World’s Key Weapon for Tackling Tobacco

Tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. According to the World Health Organisation, it is responsible for 6 million deaths and half a trillion dollars of economic damage each year. As a result, control policies have become vitally important.

The six most important policies (note that monitoring is measured separately) have proven immensely successful and now cover 2.3 billion people living in 92 countries. The mass media campaign is the most important of these, reaching 54 percent of people worldwide.

In 2010, the share of the world’s population covered by mass media campaigns increased by 32 percent, a number that fell to 22 percent in 2012. Advertising bans gained some traction, however, increasing from 4 percent in 2010 to 6 percent in 2012.