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Objectives. This study examined the relative perceived effectiveness of 30 antidrug public service announcements (PSAs) and assessed the extent to which judgments of effectiveness are related to judgments of realism, amount learned, and positive and negative emotional responses.
Methods. Data were obtained from 3608 students in grades 5 through 12 in 10 schools. The ethnically diverse sample was 50.8% male. Students in 5 experimental conditions viewed sets of 6 antidrug PSAs and filled out a brief evaluation questionnaire following each PSA.Those in the control condition viewed a non-drug-related television program.
Results. The relative perceived effectiveness of the 30 PSAs varied considerably. Sixteen were rated as significantly more effective, and 6 as significantly less effective, than the control program. Relative rated effectiveness was highly related to realism (r=.87), amount learned (r=.88), negative emotion (r-.87), and positive emotion (r=-.35).
Conclusions. Evaluative research is necessary to prevent broadcast of PSAs that could have a negative impact. PSAs should point out the negative consequences of drug use behavior rather than telling adolescents to "just say no." (Am J Public Health. 2002;92:238-245)
On July 15, 1998, New York Times columnist Frank Rich ridiculed an ad aired as part of a $200 million federal effort to minimize adolescents' use of illegal drugs. "In this elegantly shot display of high-concept Madison Avenue creativity," wrote Rich, "a young woman armed with a skillet angrily smashes an egg and then an entire kitchen to dramatize the destructiveness of heroin.... The woman looks like Winona Ryder; she's wearing a tight tank top; there are no visible track marks on her junkie-thin arms; and the kitchen representing her drug-induced hell is echt Pottery Barn, if not Willams-Sonoma. Far from discouraging teenagers from drug use, our anti-heroin heroine-sexy when she gets mad-may inspire some of them to seek out a vixen like her for a date."'
The problem with critiques such as Rich's is that middle-aged, upper-class, White columnists were not the intended audience for the ad. Nonetheless, later in the column, he makes an important assumption, and one we share. Such ads should be tested rigorously before being aired. With the passage of HR 4328 (Pub L No. 105-277) in 1997, the US government embarked on its first funded media campaign to reduce "risky" behaviors...