Efficiently and Effectively Evaluating Public Service Announcements: Additional Evidence for the Utility of Perceived Effectiveness Adults' response to Massachusetts anti-tobacco television advertisements: impact of viewer and advertisement characteristics Youth Receptivity to FDA’s The Real Cost Tobacco Prevention Campaign: Evidence From Message Pretesting Perceived Effectiveness of Antismoking Ads and Association with Quit Attempts Among Smokers: Evidence from the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign Assessing the Relationship Between Perceived Message Sensation Value and Perceived Message Effectiveness: Analysis of PSAs From an Effective Campaign Testing messages to reduce smokers’ openness to using novel smokeless tobacco products
Recent research has made significant progress identifying measures of the perceived effectiveness ( PE ) of persuasive messages and providing evidence of a causal link from PE to actual effectiveness ( AE ) . This article provides additional evidence of the utility of PE through unique analysis and consideration of another dimension of PE important to underst and ing the PE – AE association . Current smokers ( N=1,139 ) watched four r and omly selected antismoking Public Service Announcements ( PSAs ) .  PE scores aggregated by message were used instead of individual PE scores to create a summed total , minimizing the likelihood that PE perceptions are consequences of an individual 's intention to quit , supporting instead the PE → AE order . Linear regression analyses provide evidence of PE 's positive and significant influence on smoking-cessation-related behavioral intentions OBJECTIVE To assess adults ' receptivity to the Massachusetts television anti-tobacco campaign .  Reactions were examined as a function of respondents ' demographics , baseline tobacco control attitudes , changes in smoking status during the campaign , and advertisements ' affective qualities . DESIGN A r and om digit dial telephone survey in 1993 at the start of the media campaign and re-interview in 1996 of respondents to the baseline survey . PARTICIPANTS Respondents were 1544 adults who completed the baseline and follow up interview . INTERVENTION By the time the follow up survey was completed , approximately $ 49 million had been spent on the media campaign . Approximately 66 spots had been aired . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Reported exposure to television advertisements ; perceived effectiveness of nine specific advertisements each . RESULTS 56 % of respondents reported seeing anti-tobacco advertisements at least once a week during the preceding three years . The average effectiveness rating for all advertisements recalled on a 0–10 scale was 7.29 , and did not differ by smoking status group . Advertisements eliciting strong negative emotions ( sadness and fear ) were rated most effective by quitters , non-smokers , and by smokers who at baseline were planning to quit soon . Humorous , entertaining advertisements were seen as ineffective by all groups . CONCLUSION The Massachusetts anti-tobacco campaign achieved high levels of penetration into the population and was well received by both smokers and non-smokers . The results suggest that advertisements depicting suffering as a result of tobacco use may be instrumental in promoting cessation or reinforcing the decision to quit . Further research is needed to lend additional support to the link between perceived effectiveness and smoking behaviour change In February 2014 , the Food and Drug Administration launched The Real Cost , a national youth tobacco prevention campaign . This article examines youth receptivity to potential campaign ads using data from 3 message pretesting studies featuring the same design and consistent instrumentation . A total of 3,258 adolescents ages 13–17 were r and omized to either an ad-viewing condition or a no-exposure control condition .  Perceived ad effectiveness , smoking-related beliefs , and attitudes were measured as outcome variables . The sample consisted of both experimental smokers ( 58 % ) and current nonsmokers at risk for cigarette initiation ( 42 % ) . A total of 14 ads were tested across the three studies . Participants who viewed the ads generally considered them to be effective ( with a mean perceived ad effectiveness score of 3.66 on a scale from 1 to 5 ) . Compared to those in the control condition , participants in the ad-viewing condition reported stronger beliefs about the health risks of smoking ( p < .001 ) , a greater likelihood that smoking would lead to loss of control in life ( p < .001 ) , and more negative attitudes toward smoking ( p < .001 ) . Responses to campaign ads were largely consistent between experimenters and at-risk nonsmokers . Implication s of the findings for the campaign are discussed ABSTRACT Background . Measures of perceived effectiveness ( PE ) of ads have been vali date d to predict changes in cognitive precursors of quit attempts , but a relationship between PE and actual quit attempts has not been shown in population -based studies . We analyzed smokers ’ PE ratings of ads from the national Tips From Former Smokers ( Tips ) campaign to ( 1 ) establish the validity of PE in predicting quit attempts in a large , nationally representative sample of smokers ; ( 2 ) identify behavioral and demographic correlates of PE among respondents ; and ( 3 ) examine whether PE is influenced by matching the race/ethnicity of ad participants with that of the ad viewer . Methods . We used survey data from two waves ( baseline and follow-up ) of a longitudinal online cohort of adult U.S. cigarette smokers . Respondents were shown one or more of  14 Tips campaign ads and were asked to assess each ad in terms of PE . We used multivariate models to estimate the association between baseline PE and prospect i ve quit attempts ; cross-sectional associations between PE and various respondent characteristics , including race/ethnicity , desire to quit , and health conditions ; and the association between race/ethnicity of respondents and Tips ad participants . Results . Higher PE at baseline was associated with increased odds of a quit attempt at follow-up . Higher PE scores were associated with non-Hispanic black race , Hispanic ethnicity , higher desire to quit , presence of a chronic health condition , and presence of a mental health condition . There was no relationship between PE scores and matched race/ethnicity of the respondent and Tips ad participants . Conclusions . This is the first study to demonstrate an association between PE scores for antismoking ads and prospect i ve quit attempts in a large , nationally representative sample of smokers . Our findings also provide strong evidence that racial/ethnic minority sub population s , including non-Hispanic blacks and Hispanics , react more favorably to Tips campaign ads irrespective of race/ethnicity of the ad participant . This suggests that message characteristics ( e.g. , graphic visuals and emotional content ) may play a more important role in PE than race/ethnicity of ad participants The current study is an analysis of public service announcements ( PSAs ) from an effective safer sex campaign that utilized a sensation-seeking targeting ( SENTAR ) approach . Two r and om sample s of heterosexually active young adults ( sample one N = 1,463 , sample two N = 895 ) viewed different sets of safer sex PSAs on a laptop computer and answered questions about their perceived sensation value and perceived effectiveness . Multiple regression analyses examined the impact of ( a ) demographic , ( b ) individual difference , ( c ) sexual context , and ( d ) message variables including perceived message sensation value  ( PMSV ) on the perceived message effectiveness ( PME ) of the PSAs . Results indicated that females , African Americans , condom users , and those with less education viewed the PSAs as slightly more effective than males , Caucasians , non-condom users , and those with more education . PMSV and personal utility emerged as the strongest predictors of PME , even after controlling for all of the aforementioned variables . Implication s for further research on PMSV and perceived and actual effectiveness of PSAs are offered Introduction Tobacco manufacturers ’ aggressive promotion of new smokeless tobacco products such as snus warrants a timely and effective public health response . This study tested potential countermarketing messages to discourage current and former smokers from becoming dual users of smokeless tobacco and cigarettes . Methods In a pretest-post-test experiment , 1836 adult current and recently former smokers from a national sample were r and omised to view one of six antismokeless tobacco ads followed by a snus ad , to view a control ad followed by a snus ad ; or to view two control ads .  Perceived effectiveness of ads and actual changes in attitudes and openness to snus were compared across groups using analyses of variance . Results Some ads that were perceived as most effective did not change attitudes or openness to trying snus , and conversely , some ads not perceived as effective changed attitudes and openness to snus . Ads portraying the negative health effects of smokeless tobacco were perceived as most effective , but ads with antitobacco industry themes significantly decreased favourable attitudes toward snus . Responses to ads were different for smokers who had ever used smokeless tobacco : for this group health effects and humorous/testimonial ads were effective . Conclusions Measures of perceived effectiveness of antitobacco ads need to be augmented with measures of actual effectiveness to assess countermarketing messages . Some of the developed ads , such as ads with anti-industry themes , were effective for the overall population of smokers whereas humorous/testimonial and health effects ads were particularly effective in changing attitudes of past users of smokeless tobacco
ABSTRACT Target audience ratings of the likely impact of persuasive messages , known as perceived message effectiveness ( PME ) , are commonly used in health communication campaigns .
However , applications of PME rely on a critical assumption — that is , that PME is a valid indicator of the likely effectiveness of messages .