Study finds youth in tobacco states

The surveys were designed to assess the impact of American Legacy Foundation’s Truth campaign, which began in 2000 and is the largest national smoking prevention campaign for youth. Truth ads focus on tobacco industry marketing practices, cigarette ingredients and the health consequences of smoking. They air on television and radio networks that reach at-risk teens, in magazines oriented toward adolescents and on the Truth Web site.

“There has been much speculation that tobacco prevention campaigns that focus on the marketing tactics of the tobacco industry will not work well in tobacco producing-states,” said Dr. Kurt Ribisl, assistant professor of health behavior and health education at UNC and director of the UNC Pre-Doctoral Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Training Program. “Our study found that adolescents who lived in the six major tobacco-producing states, including North Carolina, were as receptive and responsive to Truth campaign ads as their counterparts in non-tobacco states. Thus, this strategy works.”

Tobacco use is the leading cause of premature death and preventable illness in the United States, and so it is important to support effective smoking prevention campaigns such as Truth, said James Thrasher, lead author of the study.

“We urge policymakers and health professionals in tobacco-producing states to consider developing and using prevention messages that reflect the successful strategies of the national Truth campaign, something that has not been done in these states,” Thrasher said.

A report on the research appears in the September issue of the journal Tobacco Control. Besides Thrasher, a doctoral student in health behavior and health education at the UNC School of Public Health and research policy analyst at RTI, authors include Ribisl; Dr. Matthew Farrelly, director of the Public Health Economics and Policy Research Program at RTI; and Dr. M. Lyndon Haviland, former chief operating officer of the American Legacy Foundation in Washington, D.C.

“A number of studies suggest that ads focusing on the marketing practices of the tobacco industry increase anti-industry attitudes and, in turn, reduce smoking among youth,” Thrasher said. “Media campaigns with messages focused on the tobacco industry, for example, appear to have contributed to declines in youth smoking in California, Florida and Massachusetts. Currently, the national Truth Campaign appears to be contributing to nationwide reductions in youth smoking.”

The N.C. group undertook its research since members saw a need to clarify whether Truth ads worked in tobacco-producing states, where state policymakers have often refused to support such campaigns because of their presumed ineffectiveness in “tobacco country, he said.

“Our study found that youths’ reactions to Truth ads were equally positive whether they lived in tobacco-producing or non-tobacco producing states,” Thrasher said. “Although youths in tobacco-producing states had weaker anti-tobacco industry attitudes and beliefs before the launch of the Truth campaign, once the campaign started, the strength of these attitudes and beliefs increased at the same rate found among youth living other states.

“There is still a need to study whether counter-marketing ads that focus on the tobacco industry produce continued reductions on youth smoking or whether message content and strategies must be changed to continue capturing adolescents’ attention,” he said.

Other study authors, both at RTI, are research analyst Jeff Niederdeppe, also a doctoral student in communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and research economist Kevin Davis.

Support for the research came from the American Legacy Foundation.

This release was researched and written by David Williamson of UNC News Services.

Note: Thrasher can be reached at thrasher@email.unc.edu, Ribisl at (919) 843-8042 or kurt_ribisl@unc.edu

News Services Contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596