When I read the following article, you probably could hear the audible
"slap" as my palm struck my forehead and I said, "Now why didn't I think of
that!" Revisiting your undergraduate course in developmental psych , what
is one of the classic trademarks of adolescent development?...resisting
authority in a struggle to assert personal independence. Read the following
and see if it doesn't make perfect sense to you too. Then ask yourself,
could a similar strategy be employed in an effective social marketing
campaign regarding alcohol and collegiate drinking? Note that this strategy
came from the very population targeted for change...now there's a novel
idea - involve your target population in the process of designing the
programming intended for them! :)
Robert
Florida Cuts Teen Smoking Big Time
Christine Kilgore, Contributing Writer
[Clinical Psychiatry News 25(5):1, 2000. © 2000
International Medical News Group.]
An unprecedented decline in tobacco use among Florida
teenagers is being attributed to an aggressive antismoking
message that teens themselves devised: You are being
manipulated by tobacco companies.
The message has produced a 54% decline in middle school
cigarette use and a 24% drop among high school students
over the past 2 years.
"It's just spectacular," says Dr. Larry Deeb, a pediatrician in
Tallahassee, whose 16-year-old daughter has been a teen
volunteer with the campaign. The don't-be-manipulated
message "makes them think," he said.
Like programs in at least several other states, Florida's
campaign--dubbed "the truth"--has been multifaceted,
involving a countermarketing campaign, in-school and
after-school programs, active local partnerships,
enforcement campaigns, and evaluation and research.
What sets Florida's antismoking program apart is the state's
extensive involvement of youth at both the state and local
levels and the campaign's main message of manipulation,
according to the nonprofit advocacy group Campaign for
Tobacco-Free Kids.
"They're playing on the desire to rebel. They're saying,
'These people have targeted you for years and you should
reject that,'" said Danny McGoldrick, research director of the
Washington-based organization. "It's been tried in other
campaigns but not to this extent."
Frank Panela, spokesman for the Florida Department of
Health, said the message emanated from Florida teens
themselves. "This is what they said would work. Teens don't
want to be told what to do by anybody."
One of the television ads features two executives visiting a
man in the hospital. They thank the man, who is coughing
and struggling for breath, for being such a loyal customer
and tell him, "We don't know how we'll replace you." They
then walk out into the hall and eye a teenager walking by.
The teen looks up at their glare and asks, "What?"
Florida launched its program as a pilot project with funding
from its landmark 1997 settlement of a lawsuit filed against
tobacco companies to recover costs of treating ill smokers.
A recent survey done by the state health department of
more than 23,000 students showed that, in just under 2
years, the number of middle school smokers declined by
54% (from 18.5% to 8.6% of the sample) and the number of
high school smokers dropped by 24% (from 27.4% to 20.9%).
Smokers were defined as those individuals who reported
using tobacco at least 1 day in the past month, Mr. Panella
said..
Use of cigars and smokeless tobacco dropped by similar
amounts. The reported declines in the use of all types of
tobacco were consistent across grade, gender, and ethnicity.
The results are being hailed by public health advocates at a
time when rates of teen smoking remain dramatically higher
than they were 10 years ago and when other states are
deciding whether to fund antitobacco programs with their
share of money from a national settlement reached between
the 50 states and tobacco companies in 1998.
So far, fewer than a dozen states have made the decision to
dedicate funding for comprehensive antitobacco programs,
according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
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