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Tips Impact and Results
The Tips From Former Smokers® (Tips®) campaign shows real people living with serious long-term health effects from smoking and secondhand smoke exposure. Tips also features compelling stories from family members who take care of loved ones affected by a smoking-related disease or disability.
To learn more about the background of the Tips campaign, visit the About the Campaign web page. Campaign outcomes are listed below.
- From 2012–2018, CDC estimates that more than 16.4 million people who smoke have attempted to quit and approximately one million have successfully quit because of the Tips campaign.1
- People who smoke who have seen Tips ads report greater intentions to quit within the next 30 days, and people who smoke who have seen the ads multiple times have even greater intentions to quit.2
- Higher levels of exposure to the Tips campaign were associated with lower odds of relapse to cigarette smoking.3
- During 2012–2018, CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers campaign helped prevent an estimated 129,000 early deaths and helped save an estimated $7.3 billion in smoking-related healthcare costs.4
- For every $3,800 spent on the Tips campaign between 2012-2018, we prevented an early death. A cost-effectiveness study on the topic factored in smoking relapse, inflation, and advertising and evaluation costs.4
- In each campaign, there was an immediate, sustained and dramatic spike in calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW, and in visits to the campaign website.
- The Tips campaign generated over 2 million additional calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW during 2012–2023.5
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“Yes! Good campaign, powerful messages for those that need to hear them! These commercials are what I was telling you about- I wish Mom could have seen these many YEARS ago, maybe they would have made a difference and encouraged her to quit smoking then!?”
—Comment posted on @CDCTobaccoFree Facebook
“I want to thank these wonderful and courageous and compassionate health heroes who have told us their true stories. Prayers for them. Love their message. Hope friends watching and who need help can learn from them. There is help out there and anyone can do it.”
—Comment posted on @CDCTobaccoFree Facebook
“These are the most effective antismoking PSAs I’ve ever seen.”
—Comment posted on CDC’s YouTube channel
- Murphy-Hoefer R, Davis KC, King BA, Beistle D, Rodes R, Graffunder C. Association between the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign and Smoking Cessation Among Adults, United States, 2012–2018. Preventing Chronic Disease 2020;17:200052.
- Kevin Davis, MA; Deesha Patel, MPH; Paul Shafer, MA; Jennifer Duke, PhD; Rebecca Glover-Kudon, PhD; William Ridgeway, MA; Shanna Cox, MSPH. Association Between Media Doses of the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign and Cessation Behaviors and Intentions to Quit Among Cigarette Smokers, 2012-2015. Health Education & Behavior: May 12, 2017.
- Davis K, Murphy-Hoefer R, Dutra L, King B, Bradfield B, Rodes R, Beistle D. The Impact of the Tips from Former Smokers® Campaign on Reducing Cigarette Smoking Relapse. Journal of Smoking Cessation, vol. 2022, Article ID 3435462, 8 pages, 2022.
- Shrestha SS, Davis K, Mann N, Taylor N, Nonnemaker J, Murphy-Hoefer R, Trivers KF, King BA, Babb S, Armour BS. Cost Effectiveness of the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign—United States, 2012−2018. American Journal of Preventive Medicine; 2021
- Davis K, Mann N, Murphy-Hoefer R, Rodes M, Von Jaglinsky A, Rodes R, Beistle D. The Long-Term Impact of the Tips From Former Smokers® Campaign on Calls to 1-800-QUIT-NOW, 2012–2023, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2024;, ntae164, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntae164