Friday, July 20, 2007

"Just Say Something Different"

Interesting study on the types of ads that work and don’t in getting kids to stop or not start cigarettes. The working ads convince the kids that their friends are listening to the ads’ messages (whether they really are or not). The ones that invoke authority often provoke rebellion and more smoking rather than less. IOW, “just say no” gets you more “yes.” The messages have to be tailored to what gets into kids’ heads and be there for a consistent period of time. This fits with everything people who pay attention know about the ads about other American drugs besides cigarettes. Again, it’s not as much fun as the more coercive stuff, but, if we really care about the kids and not about our images as we posture our concern, we’ll take this study seriously in our campaigns against cigarettes, alcohol, and other more or less dangerous substances that we now define as illegal.

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