Background: There is evidence that brief video presentations are an effective way to convey information to smokers about NRT products (May and West 2003). NSW Health commissioned the creation of a DVD, ‘Health Smart - NRT' to encourage and demonstrate the correct use of NRT. Narration is by a well-known television newsreader and high quality graphics illustrate nicotine dependence.

The DVD was reviewed by the eminent cessation researcher Professor Robert West, who stated: “This DVD is brilliant...Videos like this are typically cheesy, boring and ill-informed – this is the complete opposite – it's got exactly the right tone, the presentation superb, the people in it spot-on and the information factually accurate and extremely well presented. I really cannot fault it.”

Strategy: This resource is distributed in conjunction with expert advice and support. The DVD is used for both training staff and showing to groups of quitting smokers by a broad range of health services including Divisions of General Practice, public hospitals and community health centres. The DVD is also available at no cost to callers to the NSW Quitline who plan to use NRT to quit and are enrolled in the callback service.

In collaboration with the NSW Multicultural Health Service and SBS Television, a new version of the DVD was developed with subtitles in Arabic; Greek; Korean; Turkish; Chinese; Italian; Spanish and Vietnamese.

Conclusion: DVDs are a useful method for delivering evidence-based information because they are cost effective to produce, simple to distribute and likely to appeal to technology-savvy and/or low-literacy consumers.