Tobacco, COVID health risk media campaign concluded with about 4 million reached

Birzeit University’s Institute of Community and Public Health concluded a mass media campaign on September 21, 2022, “United against Tobacco and COVID.” The campaign was launched in June to highlight the hazards of smoking through culturally appropriate messaging.

The campaign was jointly launched with the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network, Global Health Development, under the auspices of the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The campaign is part of a regional operation that includes Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

During the campaign, hundreds of digital and print materials were created and published to promote for the campaign on radio, television and social media platforms, targeting smokers and relevant influencers.

“Today, we celebrate the conclusion of an initiative that comes in line with the institute’s community role to engage in activities that advocate for critical issues such as tobacco,” said Maysaa Nemer, director of the Institute of Community and Public Health.

Nemer pointed out that the campaign came after 10 years of research conducted by the institute about the dangers of smoking. The outcomes of the research, according to Nemer, are worrying, which made “United against Tobacco and COVID” an inevitable outcome.

Nancy Falah, director of the Non-communicable Diseases Unit at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, emphasized the importance of this campaign amid the increasing consumption of tobacco, especially among youth. According to a 2021 survey, the percentage of smokers has increased from 23% in 2010 to 31% in 2021, added Falah.

More than two thirds of smokers are males, continued Falah. These worrying numbers are the highest among young males, according to reports by the World Health Organization.

Niveen Abu Rmeileh, professor of Epidemiology at the Institute of Community and Public Health, noted that the campaign used various methods to promote the importance of smoking cessation, including four TV spots and radio spots by the university’s Media Development Center, which were broadcasted in the West Bank and Gaza. “Through these methods, we reached to more than 2 million people,” concluded Abu Rmeileh.

Abu Rmeileh highlighted the competition throughout the campaign to encourage youth to produce media content, including tweets, videos and designs to reach a bigger audience. “Seven teams from the West Bank and Gaza participated in the content creation contest, with 2 million people reach on socials.”

Nibal Al-Thawabteh, the evaluating coordinator at Birzeit’s Media Development Center, expressed pride in the success of the campaign, alluding to the efforts made to support the prevention and reduction of tobacco use through digital communications. “We developed more than 45 awareness content, with 8 videos and we reached up to 2 million people and 2.5 million reactions,” she pointed out.