Pechmann, C. (2002), "Changing Adolescent Smoking Prevalence: Impact of Advertising Interventions," in Changing Adolescent Smoking Prevalence: Where It Is and Why, D. Burns, ed., Silver Spring, MD: National Cancer Institute, 171-181.

chapter abstract:
The U.S. federal and state governments are increasingly using paid mass-media advertising to communicate with the U.S. public.  The U.S. Congress has allocated $1.2 billion - $200 million per year for 5 years - to fund an advertising campaign to keep youths from using illicit drugs (Fairclough, 1999).  The U.S. Census Bureau has, for the first time, used advertising to increase mail-in response rates to the dicennial census; its advertising budget was roughly $100 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 1999).  The American Legacy Foundation (http://www.americanlegacy.org), which is funded by the national U.S. tobacco settlement, is overseeing an antismoking advertising and promotional campaign amounting to $300 million in expenditures per year.  U.S. states are currently trying to decide if they should run state-level antismoking campaigns (Brull, 1999).  Several states, including Arizona, California, Florida, and Massachusetts, have already begun multi-year campaigns.  California spent roughly $.40 per capita ($12 million) per year while Massachusetts spends considerably more, or roughly $2.33 per capita ($14 million), per year on campaigns (Pechmann, 1997; Pechmann and Reibling, 2000a; Goldman and Glantz, 1998).  Many other states are currently trying decide if they should run state-level antismoking campaigns and are uncertain that antismoking advertising will pay off in terms of reduced smoking prevalence and lower health care costs (Brull, 1999).

The goal of this chapter is to assist decision-makers in making informed decisions about using advertising for tobacco use prevention.  The first part will address the question, "Should antismoking advertising be used?  That is, will it work?"  To answer this question, the chapter will review research on the impact of such advertising on adolescent smoking prevalences and on leading indicator beliefs and attitudes.  The second part of the chapter will describe research on the most promising message types in order to address the issue of how antismoking advertising campaigns should be designed.

(.pdf, 18.1mb)

 

© 2002 by National Cancer Institute.  All rights reserved.

NIH Pub. No. 02-5086