An image is worth a thousand words: the effects of visual health warnings in the decrease of tobacco consumption: a research from the perspective of social marketing

Abstract

Tobacco is considered a high-risk product, associated with multiple illnesses and representing an indisputable threat for Public Health. Amongst the measures proposed by the World Health Organisation and the European Commission for controlling its use, is the employment of health warnings about the dangers of tobacco consumption. In Spain, these warnings only contain text messages. The present study focuses on assessing the efficacy of current text warnings, and on studying the potential impact of a library of images created by the European Commission on consumer behavior. This research takes place within a network of projects currently developed in France and the United Kingdom and presents results obtained in Spain by using qualitative methodology -in depth interviews-.