Independent experts call ads from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America® “a worthwhile investment.”
A study published in the
August 2002 American Journal of Public Health found anti-drug advertising is associated with a reduced probability of marijuana amd cocaine/crack use among adolescents. A team including researchers from Yale University, New York University, the London Business School and Baruch College evaluated the effectiveness of drug-education messages from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America from 1987 through 1990. The researchers said that by 1990,
“after three years of PDFA ads, approximately 9.25 percent fewer adolescents were using marijuana.” The team also noted the decrease came at a time when anti-drug ads had increasing levels of media financial support – and thus were seen more often. “Given the results,” the researchers said, “this increase appears to have been a worthwhile investment.”
Previously, the February 2001 issue of the
Journal reported
television advertising contributed to a significant decline in marijuana use among teenagers. Research funded by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) chronicled the impact of TV ads on teens described as “sensation seekers”– adolescents attracted to risky activity and behavior. Conducted by Dr. Philip Palmgreen and a team of researchers at the University of Kentucky, the study tracked the impact of ad campaigns that ran in select counties in Kentucky. When completed, the study showed a 26.7 decline in marijuana use among sensation-seeking teens.
Other research draws similar conclusions. In “The Impact of Anti-Drug Advertising,” researchers for the Department of Pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that
among middle and high school students exposed to anti-drug advertising, the majority identified a positive impact of the ads on their knowledge, beliefs and attitudes pertaining to drug use. Further, 75 percent of these students perceived that the ads had a deterrent impact on their own actual or intended drug use. The authors concluded that their “findings suggest that anti-drug advertising serves as a deterrent to youth substance abuse.” This study also was published in the
American Journal of Public Health.
Correlative data also support the effectiveness of anti-drug ads. Researchers at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research said their Monitoring the Future survey shows
“the use of inhalants began to turn downward in 1996, following the launching of an ad campaign by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and has been gradually and steadily declining since then.” They also report that Monitoring the Future consistently finds a very high degree of recalled exposure to PDFA ads, that the ads have high credibility with the audience and that they have high-judged impact on the behavior of that audience.
Similarly,
a study of 3,608 students in grades 5 through 12 published in the American Journal of Public Health found public service messages created by the Partnership are effective in strengthening anti-drug attitudes. Researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center examined the relative perceived effectiveness of 30 public service messages created by the Partnership and found 16 to be significantly more effective than a control program and eight to be as effective as the control program. In all, then, the study found
80 percent of the Partnership messages tested maintained or strengthened anti-drug attitudes.
In addition to the research, there is the educated opinion provided by
Jay A. Winsten, associate dean and director of the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health, in USA Today. Winsten said there was a clear correlation between the frequency of exposure to Partnership messages and improved anti-drug attitudes and behaviors –
“Drug use among the group exposed to more ads fell much faster than in the group exposed to fewer messages,” he wrote.
For links to these studies and documents,
visit the NewsCenter at www.drugfreeamerica.org.