Background: In 2005, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced it had reached agreement with Australia's three tobacco manufacturers, to cease using descriptors such as light and mild and to pay $9 million to fund anti-smoking information campaigns and programs concerning low yield cigarettes.

The announcement by Australia's peak consumer regulatory authority followed an intensive advocacy campaign by public health advocates over the previous five years, to ban use terms such as lights and milds; force tobacco companies to fund corrective advertising campaign; require the tobacco industry to pay damages for past and ongoing harms, and for cessation programs; and ban the use of ISO measurements.

Discussion: The paper proposes an advocacy model that identifies the target for the campaign, the campaign's objectives, the strategies adopted in the campaign (direct communication with the ACCC, the use of media to highlight the messages of advocates, and collaboration with major stakeholders to develop broad support for action) and strategies to ensure the effective use of these media – context, credibility and content.

The paper outlines characteristics of the advocacy campaign that appeared to be important determining how Media communicated the messages to a broad audience.

Conclusion: The advocacy model may have relevance for the design of other advocacy campaigns.