Choosing Between Ads for Your Health Promotion Campaign: Using Theory and Evidence to Guide Pre-Testing and Evaluation

Background: In November 2010, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health launched a federally funded multi-media campaign focused on smoking cessation. To guide evidence-based selection of ads for the campaign, preliminary versions of the ads were pre-tested with members of the target audience. Methods: The subjects were 433 smokers aged 18 or older who were considering quitting, recruited through an internet-based convenience sample. Participants were randomized into one of three conditions based on medium (radio, n=102, television, n=120, or transit, n=139), or a control condition (n=72). Participants viewed four ads, each representing one of the following storylines: (1) Last Pack, (2) Smoking Alone, (3) Success Stories, and (4) Try and Quit. Data were collected on measures of eight constructs from theories of persuasion: recognition, comprehension, belief change, reactance, emotion, perceived effectiveness, engagement, and cue to action. Data were analyzed to determine each ad's relative success on the above criteria and to assess whether these outcomes were moderated by respondents' ethnicity or gender. Results: While several of the storylines fared well in the message testing, the Last Pack storyline was rated most highly by subjects on most constructs, and showed consistent positive responses across different media, regardless of a respondent's ethnicity or gender. Comprehension for the transit execution of the storyline was low, and the ad was subsequently revised based on this data. Conclusions: Public health practitioners often use the mass media as a tool for health promoting interventions. Pre-testing the ad storylines provides valuable information for developing persuasive messages.