Australia spends $41.7 million to use TikTok for anti-e-cigarette campaign for the first time

Australia spends $41.7 million to use TikTok for anti-e-cigarette campaign for the first time

Australian Health Minister Mark Butler announced that the government will invest 63.4 million Australian dollars (about 41.7 million US dollars) in advertising, and for the first time, it will use platforms such as TikTok to spread the dangers of e-cigarettes to the public. This is the first national anti-smoking advertising campaign in a decade, aimed at addressing the rising rate of e-cigarette use among teenagers.

According to Capitalfm on June 10, Australian Health Minister Mark Butler announced on Monday (June 10) that it will invest 63.4 million Australian dollars (about 41.7 million US dollars) in advertising funds to raise public awareness of the dangers of smoking and using e-cigarettes.

The campaign is the first time that the Australian federal government has advertised to the public about the risks and harms of using e-cigarettes, and it is also the first national anti-smoking advertising campaign in nearly a decade. The campaign will be carried out on television, radio and social media. It is worth noting that this campaign uses the social media platform TikTok for advertising for the first time.

The 2022-2023 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, released in February, showed that 21% of Australians aged 18 to 24 and 9.7% of teenagers aged 14 to 17 had used e-cigarettes in the past 12 months, up from 5.3% and 1.8% in 2019 respectively.

In March this year, Butler submitted legislation to Parliament to ban the production, advertising, supply and commercial possession of non-therapeutic and disposable e-cigarettes in Australia. In January this year, the government banned the import of disposable e-cigarettes.