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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (Indigenous Australians) have more than twice the smoking prevalence of non-Indigenous Australians. Anti-smoking campaigns have demonstrated success in the general population but little is known about their impact among Indigenous people. A total of 143 Indigenous and a comparison group of 156 non-Indigenous smokers from South Australia were shown 10 anti-smoking advertisements representing a range of advertisements typically aired in Australia. Participants rated advertisements on a five-point Likert scale assessing factors including message acceptance and personalized effectiveness. On average, Indigenous people rated the mainstream advertisements higher than non-Indigenous people and were more likely to report that they provided new information. Advertisements with strong graphic imagery depicting the health effects of smoking were rated highest by Indigenous smokers. Advertisements featuring real people describing the serious health consequences of smoking received mixed responses. Those featuring an ill person were rated higher by Indigenous people than those featuring the family of the person affected by a smoking-related disease. With limited Indigenous-specific messages available and given the finite resources of most public health campaigns, exposure to mainstream strong graphic and emotive first-person narratives about the health effects of smoking are likely to be highly motivating for Indigenous smokers.

Aims: To assess the impact of tobacco control policies relating to youth access, clean indoor air and tobacco advertising at point-of-sale and outdoors, in addition to cigarette price and per capita tobacco control spending, on adolescent smoking prevalence., Design: Repeated cross-sectional surveys. Logistic regression analyses examined association between policies and smoking prevalence., Setting: Australia, 1990-2005., Participants: A nationally representative sample of secondary students (aged 12-17 years) participating in a triennial survey (sample size per survey range: 20 560 to 27 480)., Measurements: Students' report of past-month smoking. In each jurisdiction, extent of implementation of the three policies for the year of the survey was determined. For each survey year, national per capita tobacco control spending was determined and jurisdiction-specific 12-month change in cigarette price obtained., Findings: Extent of implementation of the three policy areas varied between states and over the survey years. Multivariate analyses that adjusted for demographic factors, year and all tobacco control variables showed that 12-month cigarette price increases [odds ratio (OR): 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.97-0.99], greater per capita tobacco control spending (OR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98-0.99) and stronger implementation of clean indoor air policies (OR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.92-0.94) were associated with reduced smoking prevalence., Conclusions: Adult-directed, population-based tobacco control policies such as clean indoor air laws and increased prices of cigarettes, implemented as part of a well-funded comprehensive tobacco control programme are associated with lower adolescent smoking., (© 2011 The Authors, Addiction © 2011 Society for the Study of Addiction.)