Emily Brennan

Biographic Data

ID3930802
NAMEEmily Brennan
GIVEN NAMESEmily
FAMILY NAMEBrennan
SIGNATUREBRENNAN E
AFFILIATIONSCancer Council Victoria
ORCID0000-0001-9779-0210
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS30
TOTAL CITATIONS7
AUTHOR COUNT30
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2009
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX2

  • Tobacco package health warnings about product manipulations

    Open AccessEmily Brennan, Claudia Gascoyne et al.ARTICLEHealth Promotion International2025

    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…

  • Clear front-of-pack labelling information can improve sunscreen reapplication knowledge and intentions

    Open AccessAnna Nicholson, Ashleigh Haynes et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2025

    Under the current standard, sunscreen labels do not provide clear directions for use, which leaves consumers vulnerable to UV damage. Mandating FOP reapplication directions and adopting an alternative 'water resistant' claim could improve consumer understanding of how often to reapply sunscreen. Due to common misperceptions about the limits of water resistance, further user-centred label design and public education is needed to improve reapplicat…

  • Testing public communications about tobacco product bans

    Ashleigh Haynes, Tegan Nuss et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2025

    Boosting awareness of the rationale for tobacco product bans may maximise quitting in response. This may be achieved for a menthol ban using messages describing the rationale, emphasising the remaining products' harmfulness and negative attributes and explicitly encouraging quitting (relative to merely describing the ban and rationale and encouraging quitting)

  • Australian adolescents’ knowledge of smoking harms and misperceptions about tobacco products

    Maree Scully, Michael Wakefield et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2025

    New GHWs and public communication campaigns could improve student knowledge of previously unpublicised smoking harms and counter pervasive misperceptions about tobacco products

  • The Effects of Filter Ventilation and Expanded Tobacco on the Tar, Nicotine and Carbon Monoxide Yields from Cigarettes Sold in Australia

    Open AccessWendy R Winnall, Ashleigh Haynes et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2024

    Cigarette brand variant names and characteristics such as the taste and feel of the smoke can mislead consumers into believing some products are less harmful. We assessed the characteristics of three common cigarette variants sold in Australia, "gold", "blue" and "red", to determine which characteristics differed by color, and which affected tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide (TNCO) yields. TNCO yields, physical parameters, expanded tobacco and fi…

  • Tobacco packaging littering behaviours among Australian adults who smoke

    Claudia Gascoyne, R Li et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2024

    The introduction of cigarette pack inserts in Australia is unlikely to create a substantial amount of additional litter

  • Can counter-advertising exposing alcohol sponsorship and harms influence sport spectators’ support for alcohol policies? An experimental study

    Open AccessMaree Scully, Hannah Dixon et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2023

    Counter-advertising employing messages that expose and critique the intent and impact of pervasive alcohol sponsorship in sport has potential to bolster public support for policies targeting alcohol sport sponsorship, diminish beliefs supportive of alcohol industry marketing strategies and enhance negative views of alcohol companies and their marketing practices

  • Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Drink Counting

    Leon Booth, Michelle Jongenelis et al.ARTICLESubstance Use & Misuse2022

    Objectives: Drink counting has been found to be an effective protective behavioral strategy (PBS) to reduce alcohol consumption. However, little is known about attitudes to this strategy and barriers and facilitators to its use. The aim of this study was to explicate these factors and draw comparisons with less efficacious PBSs. Method: In Stage 1, 1,703 Australian drinkers were surveyed about their perceptions of five PBSs (“Count the number of …

  • Public support for policies to phase out the retail sale of cigarettes in Australia

    Emily Brennan, Elizaveta Ilchenko et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2022

    There has been little public discussion in Australia about the goal of 1 day phasing out the retail sale of cigarettes. It is notable that such policies are reasonably well supported by the Australian public, with only minority opposition

  • Australian Smokers’ Sensory Experiences and Beliefs Associated with Menthol and Non-Menthol Cigarettes

    Open AccessSerafino G Mancuso, Serafino Mancuso et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2021

    Many current smokers incorrectly believe that menthol cigarettes are less harmful, likely due to the biological and sensory effects of menthol, which can lead smokers to have favourable sensory experiences. In this study, we measured the extent to which Australian smokers associate certain sensory experiences with smoking menthol and non-menthol cigarettes, and their beliefs about how damaging and enjoyable they find cigarettes with each of these…

  • Understanding the effectiveness of advertisements about the long-term harms of alcohol and low-risk drinking guidelines

    Open AccessEmily Brennan, Danielle A J M Schoenaker et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2021Cited by: 2References: 46

  • Are anti-smoking social norms associated with tobacco control mass media campaigns, tax and policy changes? Findings from an Australian serial cross-sectional population study of smokers

    Sarah Durkin, Danielle A J M Schoenaker et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2020

    Smokers' perceptions of family and friends' disapproval of their smoking was more common after exposure to fear-evoking tobacco control campaigns and after large tobacco tax increases were announced and implemented

  • Australian smokers’ experiences and perceptions of recessed and firm filter cigarettes

    Michael Wakefield, Kimberley Dunstone et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2020

    RFCs and FFCs undermine plain packaging legislation, which aims to reduce appeal and minimise misperceptions about the relative harms of different tobacco products. Like other filter modifications, these filter variants should be disallowed

  • Hardening or softening? An observational study of changes to the prevalence of hardening indicators in Victoria, Australia, 2001–2016

    Emily Brennan, Elizabeth Greenhalgh et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2019

    These results are inconsistent with the hardening hypothesis. Rather, they suggest that a comprehensive tobacco control programme that combines provision of cessation support to individual smokers with implementation of population-level interventions to drive all smokers towards quitting, can successfully reduce both smoking prevalence and levels of dependence and desire to keep smoking among the remaining population of smokers

  • Thank you to our reviewers

    Lorien Abroms, Kathleen M Adams et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2018

  • Validating the Hornik & Woolf approach to choosing media campaign themes

    Richard Hornik, Allyson Volinsky et al.ARTICLECommunication Methods and Measures2018Cited by: 5

    Hornik and Woolf (1999) proposed using cross-sectional survey data to prioritize beliefs to address with communication campaign messages. The empirical component of the approach combines evidence of (1) association of beliefs with intentions and (2) current level of beliefs to calculate a 'percentage to gain' as the potential promise of a belief. However, the method relies on cross-sectional data; its conclusions are open to challenge. Here, a pa…

  • Alcohol harm reduction advertisements

    Open AccessKimberley Dunstone, Emily Brennan et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2017

    Some message attributes have been employed more frequently than others, suggesting several promising avenues for future audience or population-based research to compare the relative effectiveness of different characteristics of alcohol harm reduction ads. Given most alcohol-attributable harm is due to long-term disease, these findings suggest future campaigns may fill a potentially important gap if they were to focus on long-term harms. There is …

  • Competing with big business

    Open AccessMaree Scully, Emily Brennan et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2017

    Dissemination of advocacy messages using inoculation or narrative components can help strengthen public resistance to subsequent anti-policy messages from industry groups

  • Predictive Validity of an Empirical Approach for Selecting Promising Message Topics

    Open AccessStella Lee, Emily Brennan et al.ARTICLEJournal of Communication2016

    Several message topic selection approaches propose that messages based on beliefs pretested and found to be more strongly associated with intentions will be more effective in changing population intentions and behaviors when used in a campaign. This study aimed to validate the underlying causal assumption of these approaches which rely on cross-sectional belief-intention associations. We experimentally tested whether messages addressing promising…

  • Finding the keys to successful adult-targeted advertisements on obesity prevention

    Open AccessHannah Dixon, Maree Scully et al.ARTICLEBMC Public Health2015

    Findings provide preliminary evidence of the most promising content and executional styles of ads that could be pursued as part of obesity prevention campaigns. Ads emphasising the negative health consequences of excess weight appear to elicit stronger cognitive and emotional responses from adults with overweight/obesity. However, careful pre-testing of these types of ads is needed prior to their inclusion in actual campaigns to ensure they do no…

  • Australian adult smokers’ responses to plain packaging with larger graphic health warnings 1 year after implementation

    Open AccessMichael Wakefield, Melanie Wakefield et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2015

    The specific objectives of plain packaging were achieved and generally sustained among adult smokers up to 12 months after implementation

  • Personal pack display and active smoking at outdoor café strips

    Open AccessMeghan Zacher, Martin Bayly et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2015

    This study demonstrated a sustained reduction in visibility of tobacco products and smoking in public, particularly in the presence of children, from pre-PP to 1 year post-PP. This effect is likely to reduce smoking-related social norms, thereby weakening an important influence on smoking uptake and better supporting quit attempts

  • Are quitting-related cognitions and behaviours predicted by proximal responses to plain packaging with larger health warnings? Findings from a national cohort study with Australian adult smokers

    Open AccessEmily Brennan, Sarah Durkin et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2015

    These findings provide an initial insight into the pathways through which PP with larger GHWs may lead to changes in smoking behaviour. Future research should examine whether the effects are conditional on individual demographic and smoking characteristics

  • Short-term changes in quitting-related cognitions and behaviours after the implementation of plain packaging with larger health warnings

    Open AccessSarah Durkin, Emily Brennan et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2015

    These findings provide some of the strongest evidence to date that implementation of PP with larger GHWs was associated with increased rates of quitting cognitions, microindicators of concern and quit attempts among adult cigarette smokers

  • The silent salesman

    Michael Wakefield, Melanie A Wakefield et al.ARTICLETobacco Control2013

    Tobacco packs are frequently seen on table-tops in café strips, providing many opportunities for other patrons and passers-by to be incidentally exposed to cigarette brand names and imagery. Use of cigarette cases is rare, suggesting that smokers eventually habituate to pictorial warnings on branded packs and/or find repeated decanting of each newly purchased branded pack into a case to be inconvenient