Out of the Smokescreen: does an anti-smoking advertisement affect young women's perception of smoking in movies and their intention to smoke?
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of an anti-smoking advertisement on young women's perceptions of smoking in movies and their intention to smoke. SUBJECTS/ SETTING: 2038 females aged 12-17 years attending cinemas in New South Wales, Australia. DESIGN/ INTERVENTION: Quasi-experimental study of patrons, who were surveyed after having viewed a movie at their local cinema. The control group was surveyed during week 1 and the intervention group, during week 2. Before seeing the movie in week 2, a 30 second anti-smoking advertisement was shown, which featured a well known female actor drawing attention to the prevalence of smoking in movies.


RESULTS
Attitude of current smokers and non-smokers to smoking in the movies; intention of current smokers and non-smokers to be smoking in 12 months time.


RESULTS
Among non-smokers, 48.2% of the intervention subjects thought that the smoking in the movie they viewed was "not OK" compared with 28.3% of the control subjects (p < 0.0001). However, there was no difference among smokers in the intervention (26.4%) and control (16.9%) groups (p = 0.28). A higher percentage of current smokers in the intervention group indicated they were unlikely to smoke in 12 months time (47.8%) than smokers in the control condition (31.9%) (p = 0.03). For non-smokers, there was no difference in smoking intentions between conditions, with 95% saying they would be unlikely to be smoking in 12 months time.


CONCLUSIONS
This "real world" study suggests that placing an anti-smoking advertisement before movies containing smoking scenes can help to "immunise" young women against the influences of film stars smoking.
Edwards
C A
CA
Health Promotion, Central Coast Health, PO Box 361, Gosford 2250, NSW, Australia. cedwards@doh.health.nsw.gov.au
Harris
W C
WC
Cook
D R
DR
Bedford
K F
KF
Zuo
Y
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000329:Advertising; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall; D009040:Motion Pictures; D009517:New South Wales; D010465:Perception; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*