“What am I jumping for?”: Adolescent female responses to an HPV vaccine marketing campaign

When the HPV vaccine was approved in 2006, an extensive pharmaceutical marketing campaign was launched to educate adolescent females about HPV and the vaccine. This study assessed responses to one of the campaign's advertisements among a sample of low-income urban adolescent females who are at increased risk of HPV infection. 67 adolescent females participated in a focus group about their knowledge and awareness of the HPV vaccine. During the focus groups, adolescents were shown the 30-second advertisement and then discussed their reactions to it. Two research team members simultaneously coded the transcripts for general trends, themes, and patterns among the adolescent responses. There was high recognition of both the advertisement and its most memorable tag lines. However, adolescents lacked a thorough understanding of the health information that the advertisement was intended to convey. Reactions to the advertisement were mixed, with some teens responding positively to its upbeat mood and the characters who were jumping rope, while others felt that a serious format would have been more effective. Ideas for improvement included focusing on the health information in a more clear, straight-forward way and having that information presented by a health care professional. This advertisement had high reach but limited success in transmitting a health education message to a target population. This was a missed opportunity to provide pertinent medical information to a population greatly in need of health education. Health marketing campaigns must take into account varying levels of audience comprehension in order to be successful health education tools.