Strategies for an Effective Youth Counter-Marketing Program: Recommendations from Commercial Marketing Experts

Abstract

Intensive and sustained efforts to "counter-market" tobacco among teenagers are necessary to negate the "friendly familiarity" created by tobacco advertising and to communicate the true health and social costs of tobacco use. Counter-marketing campaigns should: highlight a tobacco-free lifestyle as the majority lifestyle of diverse and interesting individuals; explain the dangers of tobacco in a personal, emotional way; offer youth empowerment and control; use multiple voices, strategies, and executions; offer constructive alternatives to tobacco use; and portray smoking as unacceptable and undesirable for everyone. Counter-marketing activities should work in concert with other interventions to alter social norms regarding tobacco.

Marketing Social Marketing in the Social Change Marketplace

“…Social marketers, both scholars and practitioners, have come to accept that the fundamental objective of social marketing is not promoting ideas (as Kotler and Zaltman [1971] suggest) but influencing behavior (Andreasen 1994). It is also recognized that, though products are often involved in behavior change processes, social marketing can also apply to such purely behavioral challenges as keeping girls in school in developing countries (Schwartz, Middlestadt, and Verzosa 1994), inducing parents to stop abusing their children (Stannard and Young 1998), and helping teens resist smoking (McKenna, Gutierrez, and McCall 2000;Pechmann and Reibling 2000;Zucker et al 2000).…”

Randomized Trial of Reduced-Nicotine Standards for Cigarettes

“…Over two years, the expert panel reviewed the literature, interviewed experts in tobacco control and health promotion, and drew on their private-sector experience and resources to develop a set of strategic guidelines for such a campaign (McKenna et al 2000). This work, supplemented by other reviews of counteradvertising campaigns (USDHHS 1994;Pechmann 1997;Siegel 1998;Teenage Research Unlimited 1999;Pechmann and Reibling 2000), yielded recommendations for effective media cam paigns to prevent tobacco use (see the text box "Tips for Success in Health Promotion Campaigns").…”

Piloting EX, a Social Marketing Campaign to Prompt Smoking Cessation

“…The EX campaign was also strongly influenced by the evidence regarding effective mass media campaigns (Bala, Strzeszynski, & Cahill, 2008;CDC, 2003;Flay & Burton, 1990;Hornik, 2002;McKenna, Gutierrez, & McCall, 2000;NCI, 2008). First, EX was created as a branded campaign in response to the growing body of evidence that branded campaigns may outperform unbranded media messages (Asbury, Wong, Price, & Nolin, 2008;Evans, Price, & Blahut, 2005;Long, Taubenheim, Wayman, Temple, & Ruoff, 2008;McKenna et al, 2000).…”