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A forgotten episode in the history of tobacco control: how Australia achieved a ban on television advertising of cigarettes

Carolyn HolbrookAustralian Policy and HIstory, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University ,

Ann WestmoreSchool of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne ,

Thomas J KehoeHeritage, Prevention Division, Cancer Council Victoria , , 200 Victoria Pde., East Melbourne, Victoria, 3002

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences·February 10, 2026

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Abstract

While Australia is now renowned for world-leading anti-tobacco measures, including being the first jurisdiction to introduce plain packaging of cigarettes in 2012, it was not always at the forefront of tobacco control. This article traces the history of the process by which cigarette advertising on radio and television was banned in Australia in the mid-1970s, several years after similar legislative measures were introduced in comparable countries, including Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Using the archive of Cancer Council Victoria and other anti-cancer advocacy organisations, along with official government records, this case study shows how an important milestone in cancer control was achieved over a process of several years using a combination of innovative strategies. Cancer control advocates simultaneously persuaded politicians with scientific evidence about the harms of tobacco, activated public opinion with a humorous television advertising campaign in order to exert pressure on the political class, and devised policies that would ameliorate some of the concerns of local tobacco growers and media companies. This persistent, multi-pronged and innovative campaign can be seen as an important staging ground for the victories that Australian cancer control advocates would achieve in the following decades against Big Tobacco.

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