Philip Morris' "Think. Don't Smoke" Campaign Actually Increased Teens Intentions to Smoke
Jump to full article: American Legacy Foundation, 2009-03-07
Intro: A growing body of research continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of truth®, the nation’s largest youth smoking prevention campaign not directed by the tobacco industry. A recent study published in the online edition of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) found that the truth® campaign increased antismoking beliefs among teens, decreased their intent to smoke, and lowered the rates of teens starting to smoke. In contrast, Philip Morris’ “Think. Don’t Smoke” campaign had virtually no effect on changing teens’ attitudes about tobacco or smoking initiation. In fact, it actually increased teens’ intentions to smoke soon.
“This is the fourth study to be released in the last few weeks that validates the truth® campaign’s efforts,” said Dr. Cheryl G. Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation®. . . .
Data from the study came from a three-year, in-school survey of approximately 16,000 youth in grades 6 through 12. Research was conducted by a team from RTI International, Columbia University and Legacy.
Last week, three other new research papers found that truth® remains highly effective as well as cost-efficient in its mission to prevent the youth of America from beginning to smoke:
Ø The first paper found that truth® was directly responsible for keeping 450,000 teens from starting to smoke during its first four years
Ø A second study led by Johns Hopkins found that the campaign not only paid for itself in its first two years, but also saved between $1.9 and $5.4 billion in medical care costs to society. [The two papers will be published in the April issue of AJPM but are available on the Journal’s Web site, http://www.ajpm-online.net/.]
Ø A third paper appearing in the February issue of Ethnicity and Health showed that youth exposed to the truth® campaign were more likely to have anti-tobacco beliefs and attitudes.
February 2009 marks the ninth anniversary of the truth® campaign
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