Melanie Wakefield
Biographic Data
| ID | 3886419 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melanie Wakefield |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melanie |
| FAMILY NAME | Wakefield |
| SIGNATURE | WAKEFIELD M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cancer Council Victoria |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 99 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 42 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Tobacco package health warnings about product manipulations
The tobacco industry manipulates cigarettes to provide sensory cues that mislead people who smoke. We assessed the effectiveness of health warnings (HWs) focussed on the impact of misleading product attributes, including filter ventilation, menthol, and roll-your-own tobacco, which were called Product Attribute HWs. Australian adults who smoke (n = 2544) were randomly assigned to view: control medication warnings; new Standard HWs with smoking ha…
‘You Can Sort of Justify Having That Drink’
Association between single‐channel and cumulative exposure to alcohol advertising and drinking behaviours among Australian adolescents
Obesity prevention and related public health advertising versus competing commercial advertising expenditure in Australia
Mass media campaigns can change attitudes and behaviours to improve population health. However, a key challenge is achieving share of voice in a complex and cluttered media environment. The aim of this study was to compare advertising expenditure on public health campaigns for obesity prevention (and related healthy eating and physical activity campaigns) with competing commercial categories of (a) sugary drinks, (b) artificially sweetened drinks…
Warning labels and interpretive nutrition labels
Effective strategies to reduce free sugar intake are needed. This study examined exposure to a warning label, independently and in conjunction with a Health Star Rating (HSR) label, on the selection of commercially available cold beverages with real decision-making stakes. Participants (N = 511, 47.9% female, mean = 21.7 (SD = 6.1) years) accessed an online convenience store app via an on-campus laptop to select one of 10 beverages (5 sugar-sweet…
Cigarette pack size and consumption
https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN34202533
Can point-of-sale nutrition information encourage reduced preference for sugary drinks among adolescents
Objective: To test whether point-of-sale (POS) information about the nutrition content of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) promotes healthier drink choices among teenagers, and explore whether POS intervention effects vary based on prior exposure to a sugary drink public health campaign ( 13 Cancers ). Design: Between-subjects online experiment with three POS signage conditions: no signage (control); sugar content (SC) and Health Star Rating (HSR)…
Food and drink marketing on social media and dietary intake in Australian adolescents
General and specific graphic health warning labels reduce willingness to consume sugar-sweetened beverages
Can point-of-sale nutrition information and health warnings encourage reduced preference for sugary drinks
Effects of health star labelling on the healthiness of adults' fast food meal selections
Health warnings promote healthier dietary decision making
Tobacco product developments in the Australian market in the 4 years following plain packaging
This paper aimed to identify continued and emerging trends in the Australian tobacco market following plain packaging implementation, over a period of substantial increases in tobacco taxes. Since 2012, our surveillance activities (including review of trade product and price lists, ingredient reports submitted by tobacco companies to government and monitoring of the retail environment) found several trends in the factory-made cigarette market. Th…
Tobacco price boards as a promotional strategy—a longitudinal observational study in Australian retailers
Price boards promote tobacco products in ways that undermine the effectiveness of tax policy as a means of discouraging consumption. Communication to consumers about prices should be restricted to information sheets provided to adult smokers on request at the point of sale
Factors associated with high consumption of soft drinks among Australian secondary-school students
Objective To examine demographic and behavioural correlates of high consumption of soft drinks (non-alcoholic sugar-sweetened carbonated drinks excluding energy drinks) among Australian adolescents and to explore the associations between high consumption and soft drink perceptions and accessibility. Design Cross-sectional self-completion survey and height and weight measurements. Setting Australian secondary schools. Subjects Students aged 12–17 …
Food marketing with movie character toys
Shade Sails and Passive Recreation in Public Parks of Melbourne and Denver
Objectives. To test whether shade sails will increase the use of passive recreation areas (PRAs). Methods. We conducted a stratified randomized pretest–posttest controlled design study in Melbourne, Australia, and Denver, Colorado, in 2010 to 2014. We randomized a sample of 144 public parks with 2 PRAs in full sun in a 1:3 ratio to treatment or control. Shade sails were built at 1 PRA per treatment park. The outcome was any use of the study PRA (…
The effect of packaging, branding and labeling on the experience of unhealthy food and drink
The advertised price of cigarette packs in retail outlets across Australia before and after the implementation of plain packaging
Objective This study monitored the advertised price of the most prominently promoted and the cheapest single packs of cigarettes in Australian retail outlets before and after the implementation of plain packaging. Methods A panel of 421 outlets in four large Australian cities was visited monthly from May 2012 to August 2013 and the brand, pack size and price of the most-prominently listed and lowest-priced single cigarette pack were recorded from…
Australian adult smokers’ responses to plain packaging with larger graphic health warnings 1 year after implementation
The specific objectives of plain packaging were achieved and generally sustained among adult smokers up to 12 months after implementation
Changes in use of types of tobacco products by pack sizes and price segments, prices paid and consumption following the introduction of plain packaging in Australia
Introduction of PP was associated with an increase in use of value brands, likely due to increased numbers available and smaller increases in prices for value relative to premium brands. Reported consumption declined following the December 2013 tax increase
Use of illicit tobacco following introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco products in Australia
While unable to quantify the total extent of use of illicit manufactured cigarettes, in this large national survey we found no evidence in Australia of increased use of two categories of manufactured cigarettes likely to be contraband, no increase in purchase from informal sellers and no increased use of unbranded illicit 'chop-chop' tobacco
What factors are associated with frequent unhealthy snack-food consumption among Australian secondary-school students
Objective To examine demographic and behavioural correlates of unhealthy snack-food consumption among Australian secondary-school students and the association between their perceptions of availability, convenience and intake with consumption. Design Cross-sectional survey of students’ eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviours using validated instruments administered via an online questionnaire. Setting Australian secondary schools across…
Socio-economic disparities in Australian adolescents’ eating behaviours
Objective To assess the association between socio-economic position (SEP) and poor eating behaviours in a large representative sample of Australian secondary-school students. Design Cross-sectional survey of students’ vegetable, fruit, sugar-sweetened beverage and fast-food consumption assessed using validated instruments and collected via a web-based self-report format. Setting Secondary schools across all Australian states and territories. Subj…
Response to
State Tobacco Control Spending and Youth Smoking
Objective. We examined the relationship between state-level tobacco control expenditures and youth smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption. Methods. We estimated a 2-part model of cigarette demand using data from the 1991 through 2000 nationally representative surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students as part of the Monitoring the Future project. Results. We found that real per capita expenditures on tobacco control had a negative and …
Association between food marketing exposure and adolescents’ food choices and eating behaviors
Smoking and smoking cessation among men whose partners are pregnant
What types of nutrition menu labelling lead consumers to select less energy-dense fast food? An experimental study
Effect of Televised, Tobacco Company–Funded Smoking Prevention Advertising on Youth Smoking-Related Beliefs, Intentions, and Behavior
Objective. To relate exposure to televised youth smoking prevention advertising to youths’ smoking beliefs, intentions, and behaviors. Methods. We obtained commercial television ratings data from 75 US media markets to determine the average youth exposure to tobacco company youth-targeted and parent-targeted smoking prevention advertising. We merged these data with nationally representative school-based survey data (n = 103 172) gathered from 199…
Health warnings promote healthier dietary decision making
Antismoking television advertising and socioeconomic variations in calls to Quitline
Objective: To assess the socioeconomic variations in call rates to the Quitline (Victoria, Australia) and in the impact of anti-tobacco television advertising on call rates. Design: The outcome measure was the number of calls to the Quitline in Victoria for each week for each socioeconomic group for the period January 2001 to March 2004. Socioeconomic status (SES) was derived from the caller’s postcode using the Index of Socioeconomic Disadvantag…
Food and drink marketing on social media and dietary intake in Australian adolescents
Televised Antismoking Advertising
Objectives. We assessed the effects of levels and duration of exposure to televised antismoking advertising on cognitive and behavioral changes. Methods. We used data from a serial cross-sectional telephone survey with weekly interviews of adult smokers and recent quitters in New South Wales, Australia (n = 13 301), between April 2005 and December 2010. We merged survey data with commercial TV ratings data to estimate individuals’ exposure to ant…
General and specific graphic health warning labels reduce willingness to consume sugar-sweetened beverages
Can counter-advertising reduce pre-adolescent children's susceptibility to front-of-package promotions on unhealthy foods
The Effects of Smoking-Related Television Advertising on Smoking and Intentions to Quit Among Adults in the United States
Objectives. We investigated whether state-sponsored antitobacco advertisements are associated with reduced adult smoking, and interactions between smoking-related advertising types. Methods. We measured mean exposure to smoking-related advertisements with television ratings for the top-75 US media markets from 1999 to 2007. We combined these data with individual-level Current Population Surveys Tobacco Use Supplement data and state tobacco contro…
Warning labels and interpretive nutrition labels
Effective strategies to reduce free sugar intake are needed. This study examined exposure to a warning label, independently and in conjunction with a Health Star Rating (HSR) label, on the selection of commercially available cold beverages with real decision-making stakes. Participants (N = 511, 47.9% female, mean = 21.7 (SD = 6.1) years) accessed an online convenience store app via an on-campus laptop to select one of 10 beverages (5 sugar-sweet…
Food marketing with movie character toys
Can point-of-sale nutrition information and health warnings encourage reduced preference for sugary drinks
Shade Sails and Passive Recreation in Public Parks of Melbourne and Denver
Objectives. To test whether shade sails will increase the use of passive recreation areas (PRAs). Methods. We conducted a stratified randomized pretest–posttest controlled design study in Melbourne, Australia, and Denver, Colorado, in 2010 to 2014. We randomized a sample of 144 public parks with 2 PRAs in full sun in a 1:3 ratio to treatment or control. Shade sails were built at 1 PRA per treatment park. The outcome was any use of the study PRA (…
Potential effectiveness of anti-smoking advertisement types in ten low and middle income countries
Smoking and smoking cessation among men whose partners are pregnant
Australian Letters to the Editor on Tobacco
News coverage of tobacco issues influences both individual behavior change and policy progression. Thus, media advocacy is increasingly recognized as important for promoting public health. Letters to the editor (LTE) are a basic form of media advocacy, serving to demonstrate community sentiment on a given issue. Such letters are yet to receive systematic analytic consideration. The authors conducted an ethnographic content analysis of LTE on toba…
State Tobacco Control Spending and Youth Smoking
Objective. We examined the relationship between state-level tobacco control expenditures and youth smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption. Methods. We estimated a 2-part model of cigarette demand using data from the 1991 through 2000 nationally representative surveys of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students as part of the Monitoring the Future project. Results. We found that real per capita expenditures on tobacco control had a negative and …
Stay away from them until you’re old enough to make a decision”
Stated concerns about youth smoking and youth smoking prevention programmes are put forward in litigation as evidence that the tobacco industry is "serious" about tackling youth smoking, and serve as a primary strategy to improve the tobacco industry's public image. The tobacco industry's evaluation of the effectiveness of their youth smoking prevention programmes is demonstrably insufficient under current public health evaluation standards. Publ…
Effect of Televised, Tobacco Company–Funded Smoking Prevention Advertising on Youth Smoking-Related Beliefs, Intentions, and Behavior
Objective. To relate exposure to televised youth smoking prevention advertising to youths’ smoking beliefs, intentions, and behaviors. Methods. We obtained commercial television ratings data from 75 US media markets to determine the average youth exposure to tobacco company youth-targeted and parent-targeted smoking prevention advertising. We merged these data with nationally representative school-based survey data (n = 103 172) gathered from 199…
Antismoking television advertising and socioeconomic variations in calls to Quitline
Objective: To assess the socioeconomic variations in call rates to the Quitline (Victoria, Australia) and in the impact of anti-tobacco television advertising on call rates. Design: The outcome measure was the number of calls to the Quitline in Victoria for each week for each socioeconomic group for the period January 2001 to March 2004. Socioeconomic status (SES) was derived from the caller’s postcode using the Index of Socioeconomic Disadvantag…
Can You Feel It? Negative Emotion, Risk, and Narrative in Health Communication
Eliciting emotional responses to mass media messages can be an effective means of changing public health attitudes, intentions and behaviors. This conceptual paper proposes that emotional responses to such media messages can be message-referent, plot-referent, and/or self-referent. Self-referent emotional responses are expected to have a direct effect in motivating behavior change, particularly as they are likely to be associated with an increase…
The prostate cancer screening debate
This study explored older men's and their partners' reactions to a television news program on the medical debate surrounding the use of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test for prostate cancer screening. Six focus groups, split by gender and socio-economic status (SES), were conducted with men aged 50 years or older ( n = 28) and female partners of such men ( n = 13). A self-completion questionnaire was also used to yield quantitative indices…
Association between commercial television exposure and fast-food consumption among adults
Objective To examine the association between television advertising exposure and adults’ consumption of fast foods. Design Cross-sectional telephone survey. Questions included measures of frequency of fast-food consumption at different meal times and average daily hours spent watching commercial television. Subjects/setting Subjects comprised 1495 adults (41 % response rate) aged ≥18 years from Victoria, Australia. Results Twenty-three per cent o…
Pathways to Persuasion
The experience of transportation—being absorbed in a narrative—and its relationship to persuasion were considered in two studies exploring responses to health-promoting mass media messages. Following Epstein’s (1994) cognitive-experiential self-theory, two pathways to persuasion were considered: cognitive and experiential. In Study 1 ( n = 121), smokers who experienced increased transportation in response to antismoking messages reported that the…
Mass media campaigns to promote smoking cessation among adults
Association between food marketing exposure and adolescents’ food choices and eating behaviors
The Effects of Smoking-Related Television Advertising on Smoking and Intentions to Quit Among Adults in the United States
Objectives. We investigated whether state-sponsored antitobacco advertisements are associated with reduced adult smoking, and interactions between smoking-related advertising types. Methods. We measured mean exposure to smoking-related advertisements with television ratings for the top-75 US media markets from 1999 to 2007. We combined these data with individual-level Current Population Surveys Tobacco Use Supplement data and state tobacco contro…
What types of nutrition menu labelling lead consumers to select less energy-dense fast food? An experimental study
Televised Antismoking Advertising
Objectives. We assessed the effects of levels and duration of exposure to televised antismoking advertising on cognitive and behavioral changes. Methods. We used data from a serial cross-sectional telephone survey with weekly interviews of adult smokers and recent quitters in New South Wales, Australia (n = 13 301), between April 2005 and December 2010. We merged survey data with commercial TV ratings data to estimate individuals’ exposure to ant…
Potential effectiveness of anti-smoking advertisement types in ten low and middle income countries
Socio-economic disparities in Australian adolescents’ eating behaviours
Objective To assess the association between socio-economic position (SEP) and poor eating behaviours in a large representative sample of Australian secondary-school students. Design Cross-sectional survey of students’ vegetable, fruit, sugar-sweetened beverage and fast-food consumption assessed using validated instruments and collected via a web-based self-report format. Setting Secondary schools across all Australian states and territories. Subj…
Response to
Can counter-advertising reduce pre-adolescent children's susceptibility to front-of-package promotions on unhealthy foods
The advertised price of cigarette packs in retail outlets across Australia before and after the implementation of plain packaging
Objective This study monitored the advertised price of the most prominently promoted and the cheapest single packs of cigarettes in Australian retail outlets before and after the implementation of plain packaging. Methods A panel of 421 outlets in four large Australian cities was visited monthly from May 2012 to August 2013 and the brand, pack size and price of the most-prominently listed and lowest-priced single cigarette pack were recorded from…
Australian adult smokers’ responses to plain packaging with larger graphic health warnings 1 year after implementation
The specific objectives of plain packaging were achieved and generally sustained among adult smokers up to 12 months after implementation
Changes in use of types of tobacco products by pack sizes and price segments, prices paid and consumption following the introduction of plain packaging in Australia
Introduction of PP was associated with an increase in use of value brands, likely due to increased numbers available and smaller increases in prices for value relative to premium brands. Reported consumption declined following the December 2013 tax increase
Use of illicit tobacco following introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco products in Australia
While unable to quantify the total extent of use of illicit manufactured cigarettes, in this large national survey we found no evidence in Australia of increased use of two categories of manufactured cigarettes likely to be contraband, no increase in purchase from informal sellers and no increased use of unbranded illicit 'chop-chop' tobacco
What factors are associated with frequent unhealthy snack-food consumption among Australian secondary-school students
Objective To examine demographic and behavioural correlates of unhealthy snack-food consumption among Australian secondary-school students and the association between their perceptions of availability, convenience and intake with consumption. Design Cross-sectional survey of students’ eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviours using validated instruments administered via an online questionnaire. Setting Australian secondary schools across…
The effect of packaging, branding and labeling on the experience of unhealthy food and drink
Medicine (36 works) · Environmental health (29 works) · Psychology (28 works) · Advertising (23 works) · Business (19 works) · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet (19 works) · Smoking Behavior and Cessation (17 works) · Demography (14 works) · Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling (13 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (10 works)