National Anti-Marijuana Ads Compared to Anti-Tobacco Ads: Differences between Immediate Favorable and Unfavorable Post-Viewing Written Comments

The effectiveness of national media campaigns aimed at reducing the prevalence of tobacco and marijuana use among youth was investigated. We hypothesized that since recent self-reported tobacco use has declined substantially more than marijuana, anti-tobacco television ads would produce higher favorable to unfavorable ratios of immediate post-viewing written comments about the ads or the targeted substance. A double-blind experiment comparing the effectiveness of four televised anti-marijuana and anti-tobacco ads ANOVA revealed significant interactions between type of ads and type of written comments. Co-varied pre-test substance attitude measures of 123 participants produced similar ANCOVA results. Immediate viewer reactions to the ads may be one mechanism for Hornik et. al.'s (2003, 2004) boomerang outcomes for latest national anti-marijuana ad campaign. Substance prevention ads may reflect more than cause public perceptions of tobacco and marijuana. Results did not support ads' success claimed by Office of National Drug Control (ONDCP). The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has reported that the latest anti-drug advertisements are proven effective, changing youths' attitudes and making youth less likely to use drugs. The latest anti-drug ad campaign coincided with recent national survey data, e.g., Monitoring the Future (2003), showing declines in most self-reported categories of teen substance use, including marijuana. Tobacco use declined to a substantially greater extent than marijuana without a national prohibition policy. ONDCP reported that anti-drug media advertisements have been a causal factor, making youths' attitudes less favorable toward drugs, especially marijuana. The anti-drug ads made youth less likely to use drugs (ONDCP National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign December, 19, 2003, http://www.mediacampaign.org). However, direct outcome assessments for the National Youth Anti-drug Media Campaign (Hornik, et. al., 2002, 2003) generally showed the television ads had no effects on teens, although some parents viewed them favorably. Worrisome trends were identified, e.g., increased anti-drug ad exposure increased older teens' interest in and future intent to use marijuana. Older teens were more skeptical and were more likely to agree that the ads exaggerated the problem. Our review of these reported outcomes revealed that of 120 statistical tests performed, only 17 analyses achieved statistical significance. Paradoxically, none of the 17 significant effects were in the predicted direction. Anti-drug ad boomerang effects (Fishbein, 2002) may be suspected since all reported significant findings were in the opposite direction of ONDCP predictions. We used a randomized, experimental design methodology comparing immediate written comments between participants randomly assigned to either ONDCP-sponsored anti-marijuana or Centers for Disease Control (CDC)-sponsored anti-tobacco ad conditions. Comparing these two substances seemed reasonable since recent declines in youths' consumption of tobacco and to a lesser extent marijuana, has been reported (Monitoring the Future, 2003). ONDCP used these marijuana outcome measures to partially justify and sustain congressional approval for continued funding of the national media campaign in 2005-2006. We hypothesized that since recent self-reported tobacco use has declined substantially more than marijuana, anti-tobacco ads will produce higher favorable to unfavorable written comment ratios about the ads' objectives and implications than anti-marijuana ads. METHOD Participants 123 Texas State University undergraduate students (36 male and 87 female) volunteered to participate in the experiment (58.5 % Caucasians, 26% Hispanics, 9.8% African-Americans, 5.7% Other). The median age of participants was 21 years; 26.8% were 18-19 years old, 64.2% were 20-23 years old and 8.9% classified as older than 23 years. …