Truth or consequences: Increasing exposure to the truth® campaign among rural youth

The truth® campaign is an edgy anti-tobacco campaign for youth that has been credited with approximately 22% of the decline in youth smoking that occurred from 1999 to 2002. Although truth® is a national campaign, Legacy research shows that rural youth have had less opportunity than others to be exposed to the campaign in recent years, as a result of disparities in cable penetration across the U.S. This is of particular concern because rural youth smoke at higher rates than their urban and suburban counterparts. In response to this discrepancy, Legacy has launched “truth or consequences,” a program designed to increase the reach and frequency of truth® ads in rural areas. This will be accomplished by increasing the level of GRPS in 41 media markets through local buys on broadcast television channels. Legacy recently won CDC funding for this effort.

Evaluation of “truth® or consequences” will take the form of a quasi-experiment, comparing eight media markets that will receive supplemental truth GRPs through broadcast television with eight control markets. Key questions are whether the increase in media weight will result in a greater proportion of youth that are able to demonstrate awareness of truth® advertising, and whether this is associated with changes in campaign-related beliefs and attitudes among rural youth.

This presentation will explain why a national media campaign may fail to reach at-risk rural youth as a result of disparities in national cable penetration, describe efforts to correct these disparities and offer preliminary findings from the program evaluation.