Evaluation of Bar and Nightclub Intervention to Decrease Young Adult Smoking in New Mexico

Abstract

Purpose Over 20% of young adults in New Mexico currently smoke. We evaluated cigarette smoking prevalence of young adult bar patrons during an anti-tobacco Social Branding intervention. Methods The Social Branding intervention used a smoke-free brand, “HAVOC,” to compete with tobacco marketing within the “Partier” young adult peer crowd. A series of cross-sectional surveys were collected from adults aged 18–26 in bars and nightclubs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 2009 to 2013 using randomized time-location sampling. Multivariable multinomial regression using full information maximum likelihood estimation to account for missing data evaluated differences in daily and nondaily smoking during the intervention, controlling for demographics, other risk behaviors, and tobacco-related attitudes. Results Data were collected from 1,069 individuals at Time 1, and 720, 1,142, and 1,149 participants at Times 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Current smoking rates decreased from 47.5% at Time 1 to 37.5% at Time 4 (p < .001). Among Partiers, the odds of daily smoking decreased significantly, but nondaily smoking was unchanged. Partiers that recalled, liked, and understood the smoke-free message of HAVOC had lower odds of nondaily (odds ratio: .48, 95% CI: .31–.75) and daily (odds ratio: .31,95% CI: .14–.68) smoking than those who did not recall HAVOC. HAVOC recall was associated with attitudes that were also associated with smoking behavior. Conclusions The significant decrease in daily smoking among young adult Partiers in New Mexico was associated with HAVOC recall and understanding. Social Branding interventions efficiently target and may decrease tobacco use among young adult bar patrons.

Peer crowd-based targeting in E-cigarette advertisements: a qualitative study to inform counter-marketing

“…Recently, anti-tobacco campaigns are also starting to utilize psychographic targeting for certain subgroups associated with high risk of tobacco use. Targeted tobacco interventions and messages using peer crowds have been found to be an effective communication strategy [14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Such strategy has been adopted in media campaigns including the FDA's 'Fresh Empire' campaign targeting multi-cultural 'Hip Hop' urban youth [21], or the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth's 'Down and Dirty' campaign targeting 'Country' teens [22] although these programs have not yet been expanded to e-cigarettes.…”

“…We measured age, gender, race/ethnicity, income, and education level. Peer crowd identification was measured using the I-Base Survey™ for which the scoring is described in detail elsewhere [7,11,15,16,18]. Briefly, the measure shows multiple pictures of young adults (36 males, 36 females) each pre-assigned to one of the six peer crowds: Mainstream, Young Professional, Hipster, Partier, Hip Hop, and Country (see Table 1 for the definition and example images corresponding to each peer crowd).…”

“It’s Not Too Aggressive”: Key Features of Social Branding Anti-Tobacco Interventions for High-Risk Young Adults

“…COMMUNE's branded anti-tobacco messaging focused on tobacco industry business practices; a strategy used successfully by the Truth campaign (Farrelly et al, 2009;Richardson et al, 2010;Vallone et al, 2017) and consistent with research showing that anti-tobacco industry sentiments are negatively associated with smoking and positively associated with intent to quit (Ling et al, 2007). Messages were delivered via opinion leaders, promotional activities, and branded events Kalkhoran et al, 2016;Ling et al, 2014).…”

“…A second anti-tobacco intervention, HAVOC (Fallin, Neilands, Jordan, Hong, & Ling, 2015), was developed for "Partiers." HAVOC was designed for young adults attending large nightclubs, and messages reflected values of social status, physical attractiveness, confidence, and financial success (Fallin, Neilands, Jordan, Hong, & Ling, 2015;Kalkhoran et al, 2016). HAVOC also employed sponsored events, brand ambassadors, social media, direct mail, and opinion leaders (Fallin, Neilands, Jordan, Hong, & Ling, 2015;Kalkhoran et al, 2016).…”

Reducing Cancer and Cancer Disparities: Lessons From a Youth-Generated Diabetes Prevention Campaign

“…For example, psychographic targeting employs youth-generated art forms to specific "peer crowds" of young adults (e.g., Hipsters, Partiers) for anti-tobacco interventions. [71][72][73][74][75] These interventions were developed by a commercial marketing agency founded by young adults 76 who utilized a combination of creative antitobacco branding, using young adult influencers as "brand ambassadors" to transmit the message to their peers, and integrated multi-channel communications to compete with tobacco brands in social environments (Figure 3). 71,77 This work is outlined in an accompanying piece in this Special Issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.…”