Can Television Influence Smoking?

Summary The influence on cigarette smokers' attitudes and behaviour of two television programmes broadcast in April 1975 is assessed from three Gallup polls (March, April and July, 1975) and a postal survey (September, 1975). The April Gallup poll showed that smokers who had seen the first programme were more likely than those who had not to acknowledge that smoking was harmful to their own health and that smoking causes more deaths than road accidents (although most still regard road accidents as the greater cause). The September survey showed that 59 per cent of smokers who remembered seeing either programme said they had tried to give up smoking at some time during 1975, as compared with 32 per cent who saw neither programme. Among those who tried to give up, the success‐rate was not significantly higher for viewers (64 per cent) than non‐viewers (59 per cent).