The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #70914

Doug Evans, PhD¹, Steve Blahut¹, and Simani Price, PhD². (1) Prospect Associates, 10720 Columbia Pike, Suite 500, Silver Spring, MD 20901, 301/592-2215, Devans@prospectassoc.com, (2) Research & Evaluation, Prospect Center/AIR, 10720 Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20901

The American Legacy Foundation’s truthsm national media campaign uses a branding strategy to encourage open to smoking youth to adopt a non-smoking lifestyle. Recent studies have shown that youth have high truthsm brand awareness and that brand awareness mediates the relationship between truth exposure and smoking uptake. Nationally representative data on campaign brand awareness have been collected at 3 time points since 2001. This paper presents findings on several measures of brand awareness, and describes changes in brand awareness among target audiences over time. As measured by confirmed awareness, exposure to truthsm has promoted increasing brand awareness over time, and is correlated with reduced smoking uptake over time. Changes in the mediating effects of brand awareness are explored. This paper also presents data on brand awareness among high sensation seeking youth, who would be expected to find truth ads highly salient given their message content. Differences in truthsm exposure, brand awareness, and smoking uptake between high and low sensation seekers are explored. The complex role of sensation seeking in campaign exposure and brand awareness is discussed. The paper concludes with comparisons between sensation seeking in substance abuse research and tobacco control and by identifying future research opportunities.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the impact of an anti-tobacco media campaign on high sensation seeking youth.
• Learn about future research opportunities related to substance abuse and sensation seeking

Keywords: Tobacco, Medicaid

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: American Legacy Foundation
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Subcontractor to Legacy