STUDY SHOWS ANTI-TOBACCO ADS
USING FEAR OF DISEASE
EFFECTIVE WITH YOUTHS

BOSTON, June 24, 2004—Anti-tobacco television ads that generate fear or sadness by showing the diseases caused by smoking are more effective in reaching youth, compared to ads that are funny and entertaining or focus on what is or isn't cool, according to a study published by a University of Massachusetts researcher.

Study author, Lois Biener , Ph.D., said “if tobacco companies are looking for the most effective way to reach youth with the ‘don't smoke' message, they should rely on the findings of this study and develop advertising campaigns that portray real people with cancer, emphysema or heart disease. Federal and state health agencies, as well as public health groups, who have limited resources for advertising, should also adopt the same strategy for their anti-smoking message to be effective.”

Her study contradicts previous findings that anti-tobacco ads are more effective in reaching youth when the ads identify smoking as being socially unacceptable because it can cause bad breath, tainted teeth and disapproval of peers. Biener is at the Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston . She and her colleagues published their study in the May/June issue of the Journal of Health Communications .

The results of this and other recent studies recommend that showing the serious consequences of smoking works better with youth than conveying the message that smoking isn't cool, irrespective of whether the ad is sponsored by health departments or by tobacco companies.

Some of the ads in Biener's study relied on humor to mock tobacco companies or teenagers who smoke, others were meant to show that being smoke free was attractive while smoking was not, and still others portrayed the serious illness caused by smoking. A panel of 104 youth judges rated the ads on the amount of emotion they aroused in the viewer, whether the emotion was positive (funny, happy, entertaining) or negative (frightening, sad, or disturbing), and whether the ad was thought-provoking and believable. It turned out that ads arousing negative feeling (those featuring the serious consequences of smoking) were also the ones rated as highly emotional and thought provoking. Those arousing positive feelings were rated as less emotional and less thought provoking by the judges.

The researchers also surveyed more than 600 youth across Massachusetts and asked respondents if they recalled having seen the ads on television and how they rated them for effectiveness. The ads that were recalled as being the most effective messages against smoking were those that primarily evoked highly powerful and negative emotions. Ads that relied on humor, those that portrayed poor social acceptability of smoking, or ads that featured youth celebrities such as female soccer players, did not score as highly on either recall or effectiveness.

The Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (SAPRP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funded the study.

A National Program supported by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with direction and technical assistance provided by the Center for Creative Leadership

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Smoking/Tobacco Use

As you probably already know, tobacco use is linked with many serious illnesses such as cancer, lung disease and heart disease, as well as numerous other health problems. What you may not know is that tobacco users also are at increased risk for gum problems. In fact, recent studies have shown that tobacco use may be one of the most significant risk factors in the development and progression of gum disease.

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