Perceived effectiveness of tobacco countermarketing advertisements among young adults.
OBJECTIVE
To measure relative effectiveness of tobacco countermarketing advertisements by category and emotive execution style among young adults.


METHODS
Participants (n=1011) from 2 US 4-year colleges, one southern and one northern were surveyed before and after viewing advertisements in one of 3 categories: social norms, health consequences, or tobacco industry manipulation and with 4 emotive execution styles: drama, testimonial (negative emotive) and humor, sarcasm (positive).


RESULTS
Health consequences and negative emotive advertisements were rated significantly most persuasive.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first study to support the effectiveness of tobacco countermarketing advertisements emphasizing the negative emotive health consequences of smoking among young adults.
Murphy-Hoefer
Rebecca
R
Department of Communication, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA 30144, USA. rmurph27@kennesaw.edu
Hyland
Andrew
A
Higbee
Cheryl
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D040541:Marketing; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D019460:Tobacco Industry; D055815:Young Adult; D014026:Nicotiana