Radio: Anti-smoking ads work

How powerful is radio?  It can actually help people quit smoking.  The next time someone says radio isn't as good as visual mediums, consider this University of Arkansas study that finds anti-smoking ads have a big influence on people trying to quit.  That's according to researchers who studied listeners' reactions to commercials.  They find adults' opinion of anti-smoking ad campaigns influenced their beliefs -- and ultimately -- their intention to quit smoking. The study also suggests that teens who had strong, positive feelings toward the campaign and strong feelings about smoking say they don't plan to pick up the habit.  If it can do that for smoking -- imagine what it can do to sell other products."

The survey was conducted in the Spring of 2007 and consisted to two studies, one of approximately 900 adults and another including about 900 adolescents. The researchers wanted to understand the extent to which anti-smoking advertising affects consumer beliefs and intentions about smoking.  Radio and TV were both part of the advertising campaigns studied.  Both studies examined the effects of the overall advertising campaign  on four key anti-smoking beliefs:

1. Tobacco industry deceptiveness
2. Smoking addictiveness
3. Harmfulness of second-hand smoke
4. And restrictions on smoking at public venues

Overall results of the study found that consumer reactions to the advertising campaign were associated with a greater likelihood that adults would consider quitting and adolescents would lower intentions to smoke in the future. [Executive Summary at American Marketing Association; summary from Inside Radio]