Targeting anti-smoking messages: Does audience race matter?
Highlights
► Study of race as moderator of perceived effectiveness of anti-smoking messages. ► Youth rated persuasive strength of five decontextualized anti-smoking messages. ► Youth watched PSA's with embedded messages, rating smoking refusal self-efficacy. ► Participant race moderated ratings of the decontextualized message strength. ► Race showed no significant moderating effects when messages were embedded in PSAs.
Introduction
Individuals of different racial and ethnic backgrounds have been explicitly targeted by the tobacco industry (e.g., Fernandez et al., 2005, April, Mayberry and Price, 1993; see also National Cancer Institute, 2008). This targeting was done purportedly to maximize the impact of the advertising and subsequently to increase sales of tobacco products among particular racial groups (Pollay, Lee, & Carter-Whitney, 1992). Indeed, this strategy seems to have been successful as evidenced by higher purchase rates of cigarette brands (e.g., menthol cigarettes), which were advertised prominently in urban and minority neighborhoods (Alpert et al., 2008, HHS, 1989a, HHS, 1989b, National Cancer Institute, 2008). While studies of the mechanism behind the relationship between mentholated cigarette use and tobacco related diseases among African Americans is not conclusive (e.g., Siahpush, Singh, Jones, & Timsina, 2010), studies suggest increased use of such cigarettes contributes to increased rates of tobacco-related disease among African Americans in particular (Gallogly, 2007, Jarvik et al., 1994).
Given that targeted cigarette advertising appears to have been so effective at increasing smoking in minority populations, it is surprising that so little work has been completed that examines targeting anti-smoking messages to different racial and ethnic groups in order to enhance their effectiveness in those populations. The few studies that have examined whether or not anti-smoking messages are differentially efficacious based on the viewers' racial background have yielded mixed results. Some studies have found that anti-smoking advertisements were less effective at decreasing smoking behavior, reducing intentions to smoke, or increasing intentions to quit in whites compared to nonwhites (Farrelly, Nonnemaker, Davis, & Hussin, 2009, Smith and Stutts, 2006). In contrast, other studies have found that anti-smoking media campaigns affect attitudes toward tobacco and smoking behavior similarly, regardless of race or ethnicity (Farrelly, Niederdeppe and Yarsevich, 2003, Terry-McElrath et al., 2007, Wakefield, Durrant, et al., 2003). These mixed findings strongly suggest that more research is needed to evaluate how anti-smoking media campaigns, for example anti-smoking public service announcements, may differently affect adolescents of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The purpose of this study was to examine whether race (self-identified as “white” or European-American vs. “black” or African-American) moderates responses to decontextualized anti-smoking messages (i.e., messages presented without some context like being embedded in an anti-smoking PSA) and to anti-smoking PSAs that use those messages (i.e., messages embedded in the context of a PSA) among adolescents. Studies suggest that strong negative messages about health consequences are more effective in affecting audience members' recall of the advertisement and in their discussions of the message compared with other forms of advertising, such a humorous or neutral advertisements (see National Cancer Institute, 2008). Therefore, our hypothesis is that the race of the viewer is not the most important variable in regards to the effectiveness of the message or PSA. However, the field of tobacco control has not fully examined these issues leaving question as to the relationship between race and PSA effectiveness. At the same time, this study is unique in that it considers both the strength of the anti-smoking messages that were decontextualized and messages themselves as they are embedded in PSAs. It is important to understand how context of a PSA (with its implicit and explicit presentation of anti-smoking messages, presence of actors, editing characteristics, etc.) affects the perceived efficacy of anti-smoking messages. For example, it may be that PSA context is not important to enhancing or diminishing the perceived efficacy of anti-smoking messages (i.e., that anti-smoking messages are perceived as similarly effective within racial group regardless of whether embedded in a PSA or not). Alternatively, it may be that messages presented in PSAs are seen as more effective because they provide other visual and auditory cues that help to convey the anti-smoking message (e.g., anti-smoking message being conveyed by a grieving husband of a spouse who died of a smoking-related disease).
Section snippets
Procedures
The data for this study were drawn from a larger laboratory-based study that had the goal of understanding how anti-smoking PSAs exert their effects on adolescents (for methodological details see Shadel, Fryer, & Tharp-Taylor, 2009). All participants attended three 90-minute group sessions, with about one week between each session. Session 1 tasks included the informed consent process, completion of baseline questionnaires, and participants rating the perceived persuasive strength of five
Analysis of Anti-smoking messages
A 2 (self-described racial group: European-American, African-American) × 5 (anti-smoking message: secondhand smoke, addiction, short-term effects, long-term effects, industry manipulation) repeated measures ANOVA was used to analyze message strength. Racial group was the between subjects factor and anti-smoking message was the within subjects factor. Fig. 1 graphically presents mean message strength values as a function of racial group and anti-smoking message. A significant interaction between
Discussion
Mixed findings from the few studies addressing the question of whether or not adolescents' racial background moderates perceptions of the strength of particular anti-smoking messages and smoking resistance self-efficacy following exposure to anti-smoking PSAs that use those messages motivated the current study. Although adolescents' race moderated their assessment of the persuasive strength of decontextualized anti-smoking messages, once those messages are embedded in PSAs all adolescents
Role of funding sources
This research was supported through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant R21 DA019920. Additionally, Dr. Fryer was supported in part, through his Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to Promote Diversity from the NIH National Cancer Institute, Grant K01 CA148789. Neither funding source had any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Contributors
Dr. Tharp-Taylor provided summaries of previous research studies, contributed to the protocol, collected data, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Dr. Fryer contributed to the protocol and collected data. Dr. Shadel designed the study, wrote the protocol and conducted the statistical analysis. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Conflict of interest
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank Brian Carroll, Preethi Saama, and Michelle Horner for their invaluable assistance in executing the procedures of this research and the staff and students of the Centers for Healthy Hearts and Souls for their assistance in conducting this research.
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