Objectives: Canada is the only country that currently uses cigarette pack inserts to communicate health messages to smokers, including tips to quit. Messages about strategies for quitting smoking are also central to the US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Every Try Counts (ETC) campaign. This study assessed US smokers' responses to Canadian and ETC-based messages formatted for pack inserts.
Methods: US adult smokers (N = 524) were recruited from an online consumer panel and rated 8 insert messages: 4 based on Canadian inserts and 4 based on ETC. Participants randomly viewed each message accompanied by an image of either a person or a symbolic representation of the topic. Participants rated the perceived effectiveness (PE) of each message. Paired t-tests were used to assess mean differences in PE across topics, image types, and quit intentions.
Results: ETC messages were consistently rated as more effective than Canadian messages regardless of quit intentions. Image types did not significantly influence PE.
Conclusions: Messages from ETC are perceived as more effective than messages used in Canada. The FDA has the authority to communicate with smokers through inserts and should consider adopting inserts to promote smoking cessation.
Keywords: health policy; smoking cessation; tobacco control.