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article abstract:
Our research findings indicate that the persuasiveness of antismoking advertisements for adolescents can be boosted by tailoring the advertisements to distinct segments of adolescent viewers as defined by a motivation factor called regulatory focus or self-regulation focus. Different groups of adolescents have different self-regulation foci due to dissimilarities in their upbringings and past experiences. Some adolescents have a promotion focus, meaning that they are focused primarily on realizing achievements and looking for opportunities for advancement. Other adolescents have a prevention focus, meaning that they are focused primarily on avoiding hazards and ensuring situations are safe and secure. Knowing adolescents’ self-regulation focus can help to predict how they will respond to antismoking advertisements. Promotion focused adolescents tend to be persuaded by promotion oriented positive antismoking advertisements that stress how not smoking leads to positive social benefits. Prevention focused adolescents tend to be persuaded by prevention oriented negative antismoking advertisements that stress how smoking leads to negative social costs. Therefore, tobacco control officials and their advertising agencies need to craft both promotion oriented positive advertisements and prevention oriented negative advertisements. Currently, the vast majority of antismoking advertisements are prevention oriented and negative and so there is a need for more antismoking advertisements that are promotion oriented and positive. Also most antismoking advertisements are health related and so there is a need for more socially oriented advertisements about peer approval and disapproval.