Tips from Former Smokers Campaign TM

Transcription

1 Tips from Former Smokers Campaign TM CDC Campaign: The dangers of smoking as a motivation to stop. A Case Study by Robert Robinson Comstrat 565 Edward R. Murrow College of Communication Washington State University Campaign Background and Purpose: The CDC has reported that the rate of smoking among adults in the U.S. fell to 15% last year due to the biggest decline in 20 years (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. However, Hookah use doubled and no decline was observed in overall tobacco use among middle or high school students according to CDC (2015). The Tips from Former Smokers Campaign was designed to use real former smokers who describe the impact of long-term smoking on their lives. It features compelling stories that describe demonstrate the health toll on the human body. The campaign was launched in March of 2012 by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It continues on through The ads also include non-smokers and the life threatening experiences due to second hand smoke exposure. Despite progress of reducing rates of smoking, tobacco use is still the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. According to the CDC Report 50 Years of Progress tobacco use is attributable to more than 480,000 deaths a year or 1 out of every five deaths (2014). It is estimated that 36.6 million adults in the United States still smoke cigarettes with more than 16 million living with smoking related disease (Jamal, et.al, 2016). The Tips from Former Smokers Campaign Target Audience: The goal of this ad campaign is to convey the message that there are health consequences as a result of smoking and secondhand smoke. Although cigarette smoking is down among adults, more than 36.6 million still smoke(cdc, 2017). The rates are increasing for middle and high school students. In fact e-cigarette use tripled among this group in 2015 (2015). Within the overall smoking population the CDC reports that the target audience most vulnerable have lower education, are males, young adults, lesbians, gays and bisexuals, are below the poverty level, the disabled and are geographically located in the south and Midwest. The CDC identifies its primary target audience as smokers between the ages of Secondary audiences are family members, health care providers and faith communities (CDC, 2017). Formative Research: The director of Smoking and Health at the CDC, Tim McAfee asked thousands of smokers in surveys, what would make them quit. The overwhelming response was Bring it on, tell us what is going to happen if we keep smoking (Dalessio Clayton, 2013). Fear or disgust grabbed people s 1

2 attention. For the 2012 campaign they developed 8 television ads. They tested them with 10,000 adult smokers and nonsmokers ages on an online panel. They evaluated memorability, believability, motivation to quit (smokers) and how they encouraged others to quit (nonsmokers). The ads scored well on the measures. Among the smokers, 94% reported good believability with 70% reporting a motivation to quit. Among the nonsmokers 81% reported that the Terrie ad with the hole in her throat would motivate them to convince others to quit ( Recommendations were made to improve the ads; adding more detail and removing confusing images. The formative research helped them to achieve a more targeted message. The feedback confirmed that graphic health consequences can be very motivating to quit (O Hegarty, et al., 2014). Overview of Main Campaign Message: The core element of this campaign is to have real people tell their stories how smoking caused damage to their body which led to health problems. The purpose was to communicate that for every smoking related death, there is statistically at least 30 people who live with smoking related illness. Print and television ads captured the gruesome images of the damage on these former smokers. Talking requires closing a hole in their throat called a stoma. They were speaking directly to the public, no announcers. The imagery has a powerful impact. The campaign website provided graphic images that were optimized for social media. The public health partners were encouraged to use this content across social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. The campaign was initiated March 2012 and continues through It is Tips from Former Smokers Key Campaign Messages Smoking causes immediate damage to your body, which can lead to longterm health problems. For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smokingrelated illness. Now is the time to quit smoking, and if you need help, free assistance is available by calling QUIT-NOW. expected to be back on the air for 20 weeks in These 15 to 30 second ads will continue on cable, online, network television, radio and billboards in the 30 identified locations that have the highest rates of smoking(cdc, 2017). Project Evaluation: The CDC reports an evaluation of Phase II of the 2014 campaign. Using cigarette from the original baseline survey, they contacted 4,248 participants approximately 4 months later. Results indicated that exposure to the campaign increased the self-reported odds that smokers will commit to a quit attempt. Based on the statistical pattern, they predicted that with the total population of smokers, it was be estimated that there can be 1.83 million additional quit attempts with about 1.73 million additional smokers intending to quit within 6 months (Neff et al., 2016). According to CDC, the call volume to the QUIT-NOW number in 2016 was 92.7% higher than during the original baseline period. This represented almost a doubling of calls. Non-smokers also reported increased conversations with family and friends about the dangers of smoking. 2

3 The cost of this federally funded campaign was $48 million. The chart shows the program costs at about $480 (12%) per smoker who quit, $2,819 (71%) per premature death prevented, $393 (10%) per year of life saved and $268 (7%) per year of healthy life gained. Although there are not directly verified outcomes, it is based on commitments to try and stop along with projections. They consider it a good buy to counterbalance the cost of cigarette advertising. Tips from Former Smokers Program Costs 7% 10% 12% 71% Per smokers who quit Per premature death prevented Per year of life saved Per year of healthy life gained Assessment of theoretical application: Cigarette smokers are the target audience that receives a tug of war in terms of messaging: anti-smoking vs cigarette ads. Who gets to set the agenda on the key issues is at the heart of the matter. The agenda setting theory proposes that mass media has the ability to transfer key messages so that it becomes part of the public agenda (Griffin, 2012). The Tips from Former Smokers campaign was based on earned media which was presented on TV as well as social media to stimulate journalist and engagement with the target audience to create awareness of smoking dangers and promote efforts to quit smoking. Results of the 2012 campaign were observed to have limited coverage in online news or social media platforms. This in turn led to less target audience engagement on social media. It was recommended that the public health community should make a more systematic effort for collecting and evaluating engagement data. That way the impact can be measured more effectively. (Kornfield et al, 2015). In an attempt to assess engagement data Twitter was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the agenda setting application. The tweets collected (N=1,790) looked at who played a central role in disseminating messages. They found that individuals and nonprofit organizations were the primary disseminators of this platform. They played an important role in retweeting the campaign messages and established a strong agenda-setting function. However, it did not expand the opportunities for engagement. (Chung, 2016). Agenda setting is important to help people think about a critical issue like the damage of smoking on health. However, dissemination along may not be sufficient. The messages for social media should be adapted for each platform and designed to invite two-way conversations. The visual TV ads used the fear of effects to motivate people to consider quitting. Social media and the agenda opportunities should work to continue the messaging to stimulate engagement. The key for this campaign was conveying messages that would change behavior. The increased call volume to the QUIT phone line was one indicator of behavior change. This was the first federally funded government ad campaign of this kind. They tried new ways to get smoker s attention. Future campaigns will need to carry over messaging design for specific social media platforms along with collecting evaluative data. Social media combined with mainstream media ads working together should to make the campaign messages more noticeable and salient. 3

4 References Jamal, A., King, B., Neff, L., Whitmill, J., Babb, S. & Graffunder, C. (2016).Cigarette Smoking Among Adults (2016). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 65(44): Retrieved From Chung, J.(2016). A smoking cessation campaign on Twitter: Understanding the use of Twitter and identifying major players in a health campaign. Journal of Health Communication, 21. Retrieved from Dalessio Clayton, J. (2013). CDC Anti-smoking ads: Fear works, officials say. Everydayhealth.com. Retrieved from E-cigarette use triples among middle and high school students in just one year (2015). CDC.gov. Retrieved from Griffen, E. (2012). A first look at communication theory. New York, McGraw Hill. Kornfield, R., Clegg Smith, K., Szczypka, G., Lisa Vera, L. and Sherry Emery, S. (2015). Earned Media and Public Engagement with CDC s "Tips From Former Smokers" Campaign: An Analysis of Online News and Blog Coverage. J Med Internet Res. 17(1). Retrieved from Neff, L., Patel, D., Davis, K., Ridgeway, W., Shafer, P., & Cox, S. (2016). Evaluation of the National Tips From Former Smokers Campaign: the 2014 Longitudinal Cohort. Prev Chronic Dis ;13: DOI: O'Hegarty, M., Haney, C., Alexander, R., Dozier, J., Sapsis, K., Beistle, D. & Bunnell, R. (2014). CDC's Tips from Former Smokers (Tips) Campaign: Rough cut testing of television advertisements to gain optimal insight. apha.confex.com. Retrieved from Tips from Former Smokers (2017). CDC.gov. Retrieved from The Health Consequences of Smoking 50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 4

5 (2014). National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health. Retrieved from Smoke Page Background Image. (2017). Photosforclass.com. Retrieved from 5