Learning Objectives: Identify characteristics of national tobacco countermarketing messages that predict awareness, response, and comprehension among targeted audiences. Develop more formal criteria for evaluating different types of tobacco countermarketing advertisements.
Abstract: Audience: This presentation will benefit those directly involved in the creation and design of tobacco countermarketing campaigns on television including advertising firms, tobacco control program planners, and state health departments. The panel will also benefit researchers and evaluators of countermarketing campaigns, giving them new ways of measuring the predictors of success in countermarketing advertising.
Key Points: Evaluations of national, statewide and community-level media campaigns have provided evidence that mass media campaigns can serve as an effective tool for changing smoking-related beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behavior among youth. However, researchers know surprisingly little about the thematic, emotional, or production characteristics of campaign messages that contribute to their effectiveness. In this panel presentation, we explore the role of formal production features (e.g. # of cuts), emotionally laden content (e.g. intense imagery), and source characteristics (e.g. main character demographics) on three primary outcomes: message awareness, receptivity, and comprehension. Three trained researchers coded 35 national youth tobacco countermarketing messages and examined the relationships between various ad characteristics and these outcomes of interest in a nationally representative sample of over 20,000 teens and young adults. Results demonstrate that message production characteristics are an important consideration when designing countermarketing messages.
Educational Experience: We will present our findings in a lecture format followed by a discussion.
Benefits: This panel presentation is relevant to those involved with planning, implementing, and evaluating tobacco countermarketing campaigns and will contribute to a greater understanding of how to design tobacco countermarketing messages to maximize effectiveness among teen and young adult audiences.
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