Testing public communications about tobacco product bans: an online experiment with Australian adults who smoke

Objective Regulating tobacco product features can reduce the appeal and addictiveness of smoking and promote quitting, but may be undermined by misperceptions about the reasons for the ban and the relative harmfulness of the remaining products. We tested how messages about slated (menthol/flavoured crushballs) or hypothetical (filter ventilation, regular nicotine content) tobacco product bans in Australia affected quit intentions, product harmfulness perceptions and knowledge about the ban’s rationale. Methods Australian adults who currently smoked (n=1514) completed one arm of an online study (menthol, filter ventilation or regular nicotine content, allocated based on the products they usually smoke). Within arms, participants were randomly allocated to one of three message conditions: condition A introduced the ban and rationale and encouraged quitting; B and C additionally highlighted the harmfulness of remaining products; and C additionally described other negative attributes of remaining products. Results Message condition did not affect perceived product harmfulness or quit intentions for any ban. Awareness of one (of three) accurate statements about the menthol ban rationale was significantly higher in condition C than A. Regardless of condition, awareness of the rationale (menthol arm: one of three statements, other arms: all statements) predicted quit intentions in response to each ban. Conclusions Boosting awareness of the rationale for tobacco product bans may maximise quitting in response. This may be achieved for a menthol ban using messages describing the rationale, emphasising the remaining products’ harmfulness and negative attributes and explicitly encouraging quitting (relative to merely describing the ban and rationale and encouraging quitting).

• Publication year

  2025

• Venue

  Tobacco Control

• Publication date

  2025-08-19

• Fields of study

  Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1136/tc-2025-059383PMID 40830073
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Predicted behavioural responses to tobacco product regulations: findings from an online survey of Australian adults who smoke

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