Media spots targeting illegal sales to youth – 9/22/10

Q: Pennsylvania has been using the same radio ads for youth tobacco sales social norms advertising for the last five or six years. We have found that they are no longer as effective in many of our markets. We want to find/develop new radio creative and are currently seeking lower priced radio spots that we could tag and possibly add additional messaging. We have managed to get our illegal sales rates to youth below 7%. Our tobacco budget has been drastically reduced, particularly media, and doing new creative will be difficult within our more limited budget.

  1. Which states are working on reducing access to tobacco sales to underage smokers as part of a comprehensive program? What media activities are being used to support this work?
     
  2. Pennsylvania is specifically looking for ads targeting youth who are purchasing tobacco and retail outlets which may make illegal sales to underage youth. Please provide specific examples of low-priced media spots that Pennsylvania could retag and use, if available.

A:

  1. Alabama: Alabama has not developed radio ads to reduce underage sales to youth. We are addressing underage sales by contracting with the FDA to increase the number of compliance checks in the state.
     
  2. California: California has produced several print ads used to provide a point-of-purchase reminder for store clerks and consumers through paid placement as Convenience Store Posters. California has not recently made radio ads specifically to address illegal sales to youth. The print ads are available with CDC’s Media Campaign Resource Center (MCRC) and can be searched in the link below by selecting “Youth- Access” as the theme and also narrowing down to ads produced for California Department of Public Health. Several ads can be used for free in different print formats, including Doberman, Nicoteen and Prison. Good luck with your campaign.
     
  3. Indiana: When media dollars are limited, funds should be spent on hard-hitting ads that youth will relate to, such as the “Rick Stoddard” ads.
     
    Editor’s note: Several ads featuring Rick Stoddard can be found in the CDC’s Media Campaign Resource Center (MCRC) Tobacco Counter-advertising Collection.
     
  4. Missouri: If one of the universities in Pennsylvania has a film program or a journalism program, they may be able to work with them to identify students who would develop and produce high quality media spots for a class or individual project. This gives the students experience, something to put in their portfolios, and possibly a project for a grade. It gives the state high quality products at a low cost.
     
    They should also seek the input of youth in the development of the messages. Missouri has quite a number of TV spots (practically none on the topic Pennsylvania wants) that were developed by youth, for youth. One of our universities helped the high school or middle school youth produce these. They can be seen at www.showmesmokefree.com – click on media under Quick Links.
     
  5. Nevada: This Victorian State Government in Victoria, Australia has a great general tobacco control media campaign. There is a wealth of information on their website.
     
  6. Wisconsin: Wisconsin has used ads to educate on the importance of not selling tobacco to minors for several years now, including the following three 60-second ads (two in English, one in Spanish). Other states would need to redo the voiceover parts of the ads as they’re currently specific to Wisconsin.
     

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Editor’s note: Please contact the TCN for more details about obtaining permission to use the ads featured in the state responses.
 
Additional tobacco counter-advertisements for television, radio, print, and outdoor use are available in the CDC’s Media Campaign Resource Center (MCRC) Tobacco Counter-advertising Collection. Any nonprofit health-related organization or state or local government agency may license the use of MCRC materials. In addition, MCRC staff are available to assist organizations in developing and implementing a successful media campaign using the advertisements in the collection.

Back to Table of Contents
 

 

contact_email