Background: Mass media campaigns are a key population-level preventive health strategy for addressing overweight and obesity. The present review synthesised recent evidence on implemented obesity prevention campaigns and their outcomes, identifying key features of effective campaign development and implementation to inform future campaign strategies and priorities.
Method: Recent (2019-2024) evaluations of obesity prevention mass media campaigns were identified via systematic searching of two electronic databases (Medline, PubMed), supplemented with grey literature and hand searching. Campaign design, implementation, and key outcomes were reviewed.
Results: Forty-three evaluation documents, covering 19 campaigns, were assessed. The review identified a need for campaigns that adopt multi-faceted approaches (addressing multiple obesity-related behaviours), use high-reach media channels (e.g., television), and are sustained over several years, to support behaviour change at scale. Further findings highlighted the need for ongoing tracking of longer-term outcomes and population-level campaign impacts, especially for behaviour change outcomes, and the need for detailed reporting of campaign development and implementation processes to provide greater insight into the quality and reach of implemented campaigns.
Conclusion: Findings reinforce the value of mass media campaigns as a valuable and scalable tool for obesity prevention, particularly when strategically designed and sustained over time. However, findings also highlighted several priority areas for developing effective campaigns. These findings have the potential to improve the development and implementation of future obesity prevention mass media campaigns to maximise their impact for the prevention of overweight and obesity.

Welding is a common activity in many Australian workplaces, but it comes with serious health risks. Workers can be exposed to cancer-causing agents such as welding fumes and ultraviolet radiation from the welding arc. These exposures can lead to lung cancer and melanoma of the eye, respectively. Recent research [1] shows that over 90% of welders in Australia are exposed to welding fume, yet the use of effective control measures remains poor.

In response to this often overlooked risk, Cancer Council’s KNOW Workplace Cancer project, with funding support from the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists Foundation, delivered a national online awareness campaign to inform and empower welders, supervisors, employers, WHS professionals, union representatives, and industry stakeholders. Launching in August 2025 to coincide with Tradies National Health Month, the campaign aimed to raise awareness of the cancer risks associated with welding and to promote effective control measures that can be used to reduce exposure and protect workers.

Key components of the campaign included producing 90-second and 15-second animated explainer videos, hosting a free webinar with an occupational cancer expert, and delivering a coordinated mix of paid and organic social media activity across multiple platforms throughout August. All assets and key messages were evidence based, supported by expert input, and aligned with the welding hierarchy of control.

Performance of this campaign exceeded both industry benchmarks and previous KNOW Workplace Cancer campaign results, demonstrating the power of targeted health messaging to relevant trade audiences. The campaign's success stemmed from three factors: platform-specific content strategy (video-first approach), precise audience targeting (trade professionals vs general audiences), and agile optimisation throughout the campaign duration. These lessons can help guide future campaigns to raise awareness of workplace cancer risks and uphold every worker’s right to a safe and healthy workplace.

[1]Fritschi L, Driscoll TR, Nguyen H, Abdallah K, Carey RN. Occupational exposure to welding fume in Australia: An online survey. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 2024 Aug 1;48(4):100165.

Policy/Practice:
The Gippsland Region Public Health Unit (GRPHU) coordinated a regional partnership between six local councils (Bass Coast Shire Council, Baw Baw Shire, East Gippsland Shire, Latrobe City, South Gippsland Shire, Wellington Shire) to successfully secure a VicHealth Vaping Prevention Grant. Under this partnership, GRPHU strengthened collaboration and increased efficiency to deliver a united approach to youth vaping prevention through the No Filter, Real Stories Gippsland project.

Problem:
Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable chronic disease in Australia. The growing use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, presents an emerging public health challenge, particularly among young people. In Gippsland, 12% of adults identify as smokers, higher than the Victorian average and the second highest of all regions. While local vaping data is limited, statewide use of e-cigarettes has risen sharply from 2.4% (2019) to 7.0% (2022-23). These trends highlight the need for a coordinated, region-wide approach to strengthen prevention and reduce harm.

What you did:
GRPHU established shared governance across all six councils and a Youth Co-Design Group to ensure youth voices were central to the campaign. Over 18-months (June 2024-December 2025), young Gippslanders collaborated with creative agencies to co-design a regional social marketing campaign. The campaign focuses on real stories and lived experiences, addressing vaping and smoking through relatable, authentic and locally relevant messaging. GRPHU coordinated project delivery, managed funder relationships and ensured alignment with VicHealth’s collective impact initiative, building regional capacity for joint prevention efforts.

Results and lessons:
Public Health Units can unite local efforts for evidence-informed regional strategies. The partnership enhanced reach, consistency and engagement, demonstrating the strength of collaboration in amplifying prevention impact. Embedding co-design and place-based principles ensured authenticity with young people. Evaluation, including pre/post partnership analysis and stakeholder surveys will inform future collective prevention efforts including GRPHU’s convening role.

INTRODUCTION:
Young Australians are a priority audience for skin cancer prevention initiatives due to their sub-optimal sun-protective behaviours and, for some, due to their desire for a tan. This formative research prioritised input from young West Australians aged 14-24 years at all stages to develop engaging, evidence-based messaging promoting sun-protective behaviours.
METHODS:
An online survey (n=240) explored participants’ sun-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. Survey results guided development of messages/scenarios, which were tested via focus groups (n=36 participants). Messages/scenarios identified as persuasive were developed into creative concepts. Youth advisory group (n=14) feedback guided development of the final sun protection resources.
RESULTS:
Compared with males, female survey respondents reported more pro-tanning attitudes and behaviours, but were also more concerned about sun-related skin aging. Males were less sure of when to use sun protection and less likely to want to interrupt activities to apply sun protection. Focus group discussions identified the influence of tanning and fashion social norms reinforcing poor sun protection behaviours, particularly among females. For males, a suntan was often not a deliberate outcome, but rather the result of time spent outdoors with friends. The messages/scenarios identified as most effective were relevant to participants’ life-stage, identified rationally or statistically the risks to young people’s skin from excess sun exposure, and also provided hope/optimism about the effectiveness of sun protection. Calls to action tailored by gender were recommended. Creative concepts were developed from these findings and were refined based on feedback from the youth advisory group into digital/hard copy resources.
CONCLUSION:
This study brought together researchers, creative professionals and preventive health practitioners with young Western Australians, to incorporate their insights into tailored sun protection messaging resources. Demonstrating the rapid translation of evidence into practice, Cancer Council WA is using these resources, and sharing them with community agencies who engage with young people.

Introduction:

A health levy on sugary drinks is an evidence-based policy that has been implemented in nearly 120 countries around the world. Public health organisations are now advocating for the implementation of this policy in Australia. To build public support, the way advocates speak about this issue must be consistent and influential. This research aimed to design and test messages to guide advocacy and align communication across the Australian public health sector.

Methods:

Food for Health Alliance engaged Essential Media to undertake consumer research and message testing on a sugary drinks levy (or tax) in Australia in two phases:

• Qualitative: An online discussion board with n=40 Australian adults was conducted across 3 days in October 2025 to explore consumer sentiment towards a sugary drinks tax/levy and identify strong arguments for further testing.

• Quantitative: An online panel survey with n=1500 Australian adults, using nationally representative quota-based sampling, is planned for November 2025 to quantify consumer sentiment and assess the perceived effectiveness of messages to increase policy support.

Results:

The qualitative phase identified the following insights:
• Participants understand health harms of added sugar and think most people consume too much,
• Participants do not trust manufacturers to prioritise health over profit, and support government action,
• Arguments about driving reformulation and using revenue to fund health promotion may help to increase public support, and
• Cost of living, individual responsibility and artificial sweeteners are counterarguments that may detract support.

The presentation will include results from the national online message testing survey on support for a sugary drinks tax (available late 2025).

Conclusion:

Early results indicate public health messaging could help to increase public support for a sugary drinks tax. Final results will provide specific recommendations on the most promising messages for use by public health advocates to support adoption of the policy.

Introduction: Eliminating tobacco, alcohol, and dietary risks could prevent 36% of Australia’s burden of disease. Commodities responsible for these direct harms to human health also have negative environmental impacts, via production, packaging and waste, which in turn harms our climate and the health of future generations. Exposing industry practices that harm people and the planet could motivate behaviour change. This study aimed to describe the use of harmful industry frames (that expose the practices of health-harming industries) and planetary health frames (that connect human, ecological, and planetary health) in contemporary health promotion campaigns.

Methods: We used automated data scraping to source website text from 5,562 Australian health promotion entities, using a website sampling frame constructed from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission database and a manually compiled list government entities and statutory authorities. We used a multi-stage, automated keyword filtering process implemented in Python, integrating human review to confirm filtering efficacy and iteratively refine the output. We then used a large language model (LLM), accessed through Python API, to undertake qualitative coding of campaign characteristics against a pre-defined framework. Our team conducted a secondary coding process to verify and validate the qualitative output.

Results: We identified N=3019 health promotion websites, of which over half included words indicative of health-promoting social marketing campaigns. We are currently testing and refining search terms and prompts to increase the specificity of the output. Final results (due December 2025) will characterise campaign topics, target audiences, and the use of harmful industry and planetary health frames.

Conclusions: To date, the study presents a novel and efficient approach to systematically explore a very large dataset across an entire organisational sector, accelerating our ability to map health promotion campaign messaging. Forthcoming results will describe the state-of-play and provide recommendations for future campaigns.

Introduction: Australia recorded 154 coastal drownings with over 8,000 rescues in 2024/2025. Over the period 2013-2023, 30% of the drowning deaths recorded were of people born overseas. South Koreans, who make up the 5th largest group of international visitors, are found to be overrepresented in these figures. Multiple safety strategies aim to prevent these incidents; this study explores South Koreans’ understanding of Australian beach safety signs and identifies ways to improve signage.
Research Method: This study utilised an online survey consisting of closed and open questions relating to demographics, intended behaviours at beaches and interpretation of signage. 163 university students studying in South Korea participated in this study. The statistical data were analysed, using descriptive analysis in SPSS, and the textual data were analysed using deductive code analysis in NVivo.
Result: Only about 14% understood red and yellow safety flags correctly and the majority did not understand the signage terms including rip currents, and the Korean translation, iallyu. Over 90% indicated they would not enter the water when seeing the dangerous current sign, but the presence of other people in the water encouraged about half of participants to go into the water. All red-coloured signs denoting no swimming were equally perceived as a higher hazard, while a yellow sign, despite the message, beach closed, and dangerous current were perceived as lower.
Implications: This study proposes how signage terms in English could be revised for better translatability, while suggesting that red colours should be included on signage to indicate greater hazard