5.21 Mass media strategies/campaigns
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While young people are often exposed to and affected by adult mass media anti-smoking campaigns (see Chapter 14, Section 14.4.6), social marketing strategies targeting youth more directly have grown as a genre within tobacco control in the past two decades. Recent reviews of the evidence have concluded that media campaigns targeting young people can be effective.133, 222, 229 Positive effects appear most pronounced among younger individuals.133, 224 It is important to note, however, that the influence of any advertising may be moderated or even negated by the prevailing peer, family and cultural contexts in which young people live.230 Thus, as noted by Wakefield et al,133 while anti-smoking advertising may play an important role in influencing attitudes to smoking, it is not a stand-alone panacea for the prevention of adolescent smoking.
Youth campaigns are most effective when complemented by congruent school and community-based strategies222, 224, 229 and supported by a comprehensive tobacco control program that helps to shape broader non-smoking norms and attitudes.230 The relationship between mass media and other prevention strategies is, however, reciprocal. As recognised in the social marketing literature, mass media campaigns can enhance the effectiveness of other interventions,231 and form a synergistic umbrella under which a range of complementary strategies can be implemented.223, 232 This is reflected in campaigns such as Smarter than Smoking, where the messages and themes in television advertisements are reinforced in complementary radio and press ads, publications, school-based activities and sponsorship.224
Youth campaigns to date have tended to focus on smoking related issues most salient to youth, including short-term health effects, social image, disapproval and cost. Exposing the skullduggery of the tobacco industry is another theme that has been used in youth anti-tobacco campaigns.233 The majority of published mass media interventions have used more than one type of media to reach targeted youth. Media combinations have included television and radio,234, 235 television, cinema and newspaper advertising236 and television.221 There is little documented reference in the published literature to the use of magazines and sponsorships to target young people, although these have been used as channels for reaching youth both in Australia and overseas.
Although the development, implementation and evaluation of media strategies can be cost prohibitive for those involved in smoking prevention activity, it is pertinent to note that the cost per person reached is low relative to the cost of many other interventions.237
The effectiveness of anti-smoking media campaigns targeting young people varies,232, 238 and can be affected by factors such as the quality, content and reach of media messages; the absence of complementary strategies; poor evaluation methodology; and dissonance with other community, media and tobacco industry influences.239, 240 The applicability and credibility of the media execution and communication style is a significant determinant of whether it 'hits the mark' with young people or not. Media messages also need to be sensitive to the developmental stages of adolescents, and to acknowledge that the factors influencing males and female teenagers may differ.234, 241 Other best practice considerations to maximise the impact of mass media smoking prevention campaigns include basing them on sound theoretical concepts and principles of social marketing; message development based on sound formative research; and media schedules of sufficient duration and intensity.240
As with other areas of intervention within the tobacco control field, the number of published papers under-represents the number and range of mass media campaigns targeting youth that have actually been conducted, both in Australia, and in other countries including the UK, USA and Canada. Examples of recent or current mass media youth interventions in Australia include:
- Smoking you're joking media campaign developed and run in Tasmania in 2004 targeting 9-17 year olds
- Screening out smoking (smoking in movies campaign)—Cancer Council, NSW[18]
- Feeling good campaign—Queensland Health campaign targeting 18–25-year-old women[19]
- Smarter than smoking campaign—Western Australian smoking prevention project funded by Healthway since 1996 which has a mass media component, with several media bursts annually targeting 10–15-year-olds. Smarter than smoking media have been used also in Northern Territory and Tasmania
- Cancer Council ACT—ran a pilot program in 2004 using Smarter than Smoking media materials.
Anti-smoking campaigns have sought to capitalise upon the strong influence that the media has on young people generally.241, 242 However, media consumption patterns are not static, particularly among young people, and in an era of rapidly proliferating media and entertainment choices. Until recently, a media buy for a smoking prevention youth campaign had only to choose between three commercial channels which had the bulk of youth viewing market.243 Pay TV, however, is making increasing inroads into Australian lounge rooms, eroding the stranglehold of commercial stations with the youth market. In a 2004 survey, 49% of children 5–12, and 38% teens watched pay TV during the 6pm-to-midnight time-slot.243
The degree of attention to television advertising may also be diminishing, with recent data indicating that the mean number of 'other things' done by young people while watching television in Australia was three.244 Adolescent attachment to mobile phones and propensity for texting may also erode the degree of attention paid to television or radio advertising. On the positive side, there is some evidence to suggest that adolescents who spend a lot of time watching TV or playing computer video games tend to be at higher risk for engaging in risky behaviors, including smoking.245
Anti-smoking advertising and other media campaigns are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 14.
[19] See: http://www.feelinggood.com.au/
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