Background:
Media campaigns are an important part of a comprehensive tobacco control strategy, but they may not work equally well for everyone. Indeed, little is known about the link between media campaigns and smoking cessation for different subgroups, despite the well-documented differences in smoking prevalence and cessation based on characteristics such as sex, age and education.

Objectives:
This study investigated the relationship between exposure to media campaigns and outcome measures associated with smoking cessation, specifically focusing on whether this relationship differs based on an individual's sex, age or education.

Methods:
We use survey waves from the period 2008-2017 of an ongoing cohort study—the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Netherlands Project—to measure the impact of four national campaigns: ‘In every smoker there's a quitter' (n=1447), ‘You can really quit smoking with the right help' (n=1567), ‘Stoptober' (n=1371) and ‘Towards a Smoke-free Generation' (n=1258). First, we examined whether exposure to the campaigns differed for respondents based on sex, age and education. Using Generalizing Estimating Equations, we then examined the relationship between exposure to these campaigns and psychosocial mediators for smoking cessation (attitude about quitting, self-efficacy, subjective norms, quit intentions) and quit attempts, also examining whether these relationships are further determined by sex, age and education.

Results:
Of all four campaigns, average exposure to Stoptober was highest. Initial results also suggest that campaign exposure tended to be greatest amongst those who were female, low educated, and 40+ years. The full and final results will be presented at the conference.

Conclusions:
Exposure to Dutch campaigns was not equal across population subgroups and so tailored campaigns may be necessary to sufficiently reach those in the other groups. The findings of this study will provide insight into whether campaigns can reduce or increase the gap in smoking prevalence.