It's the real life message that gets their attention. Kids say they don't listen to actors like they listen to their friends. Sixteen year old Tammy Edwards says drug ads could be effective if they were more realistic. Cause most of the time it doesn't seem like they're realistic. They need to have people actually talking about their past experiences.
New studies show that real life testimonials actually can work.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has taken a realistic approach in prevention by producing an anti-cigarette campaign featuring Pam Laffin, a mother of two who started smoking at age ten and now, at the age of 28, is chronicling her own death from lung cancer. It seems to be working. Teen smoking numbers declined in Massachusetts before the drop in numbers nationally. Many kids say this real life message from parents can be very powerful. They said, they're bad, it's bad, I had bad experiences.