Decoding anti-vaping campaigns
This story, written by Syvanna Brooks, was originally published at research.unc.edu.
About 2.1 million middle and high school students use e-cigarettes, also known as vaping. Vaping is often advertised as “better” than smoking cigarettes, even though it poses health risks. While anti-smoking campaigns have successfully decreased tobacco use, how to create effective vaping prevention ads remains unclear.
In an age where video ads are extremely prevalent, differences like a 30-second clip on YouTube versus a six-second reel on Instagram could be the key to getting younger generations to quit or prevent vaping in the first place.
Seth M. Noar, a distinguished professor in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, and Sarah D. Kowitt, an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine, are diving into what makes vaping prevention ads effective as part of a five-year, $18.6 million grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and National Institute on Drug Abuse. Their multidisciplinary team includes undergraduate and graduate students, a postdoctoral researcher, and staff from the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“National, state and local organizations are running campaigns in attempts to reduce vaping among adolescents and young adults,” Noar says. “But we need a scientific understanding of what works to ensure that these campaigns are effective.”
With this research, they hope to inform how health-focused organizations like the FDA can curb vaping through communication campaigns.
From smoking to vaping
Most tobacco usage in the mid-20th century consisted of cigarette use, and almost half of Americans during that time were smokers. That number is now down to about 12 percent, and smoking prevention campaigns from the Truth Initiative and FDA have contributed to this decline.
But what works for one form of tobacco and one generation may not work for another.
“We can’t assume that the kinds of ads that work for smoking prevention work for vaping prevention, so we need to conduct studies to understand what kinds of messages resonate and what messages may fall flat,” Kowitt says.
Noar, Kowitt and team have collected 302 vaping prevention video ads from around the country and the globe. Their research examines micro details that people may not notice but make all the difference in the persuasiveness of ads — from theme to visual effects to sound effects to demographics of characters. What is the ad talking about? What’s going on visually? What kinds of background noise or music does it have?
Additional project members not pictured are: Minji Kim, co-investigator, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health and Nisha Gottfredson O’Shea, co-investigator, RTI International.
“One of the most fun and interesting things about this project is that we get to watch all of these diverse and unique ads,” Kowitt says. “We have ads that are traditional live action, but we also have motion graphics, cartoons, puppets and even talking animals in some ads.”
With so many ads to analyze, they must ensure that each one is coded based on its content, visual, audio and format features using an objective rubric — and that’s where the scientific process comes in.
The science of persuasion
For Noar and Kowitt’s research, each detail of an ad is assigned a specific code, which is recorded through a survey tool called Qualtrics. The research team spent several months developing the coding form and training coders.
The content analysis begins when two researchers watch the same ad several times independently, code the ad’s features and enter the data into Qualtrics. Then, they compare the codes and resolve any differences by discussing discrepancies with a third coder. When they finish, their findings are aggregated.
Next, they will examine how the ad features affect adolescents and young adults. This includes youth who identify as LGBTQ, a population that vapes at higher rates than their non-LGBTQ counterparts. This research will provide crucial information about whether ads work equally well for this population or whether targeted ads are needed.
While there is a lot of work to be done, Noar and Kowitt hope that their findings will help improve local, state and federal vaping prevention communications, including the FDA’s “The Real Cost” national tobacco prevention campaign.
“In doing this project, we hope to produce knowledge that can help campaigns better prevent vaping,” Noar said. “We also know that doing the research in and of itself isn’t enough, so our center is dedicated to disseminating findings to those developing campaigns.”
Seth M. Noar is a distinguished professor within the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
Sarah D. Kowitt is an assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine within the UNC School of Medicine.