Health Education Research Advance Access published online on January 17, 2008
Health Education Research, doi:10.1093/her/cym087
Sustaining ‘truth’: changes in youth tobacco attitudes and smoking intentions after 3 years of a national antismoking campaign
1 RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA
2 American Legacy Foundation, Washington, DC 20036, USA
3 Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, NY 10032, USA
Correspondence to: * Correspondence to: M. C. Farrelly, RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, PO Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA. E-mail: mcf{at}rti.org
This study examines how the American Legacy Foundation's ‘truth®’ campaign and Philip Morris's ‘Think. Don't Smoke’ (TDS) campaign have influenced youth's tobacco-related attitudes, beliefs and intentions during the first 3 years of the truth campaign. We use data from eight nationally representative cross-sectional telephone surveys of 35 074 12- to 17-year olds to estimate cross-sectional time series logistic regressions that assess the association between recall of truth and TDS and attitudes, beliefs, and intentions toward smoking. An alternative measure of exposure to TDS was also used. Findings indicate that exposure to truth advertisements (ads) was associated with steady positive changes in attitudes, beliefs and intentions to smoke, whereas exposure to Philip Morris ads was associated with more favorable beliefs and attitudes toward the tobacco industry. Our findings suggest that well-executed antismoking campaigns can positively and consistently change youth's beliefs and attitudes, whereas a tobacco industry-sponsored campaign can have a counterproductive influence.
Received on June 18, 2007; accepted on November 4, 2007