Effective Mass Media Strategies for Drug Abuse Prevention Campaigns

Mass communication holds substantial promise as a tool for reaching and persuading people to adopt new and healthier lifestyles. This has long been recognized by those interested in prevention of drug abuse and in other unhealthy behaviors (Flay & Sobel, 1983; Rogers & Storey, 1987; Schilling & McAlister, 1990; Wallack, 1989). Prevention efforts, such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse's "Cocaine: The Big Lie" campaign and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America anti-drug campaign, have heavily relied on the promise. It is also reflected in the launching in 1998 of a historic $2 billion, 5-year, media-based campaign directed at reducing illicit drug use among 9to 18-year-olds. This campaign, directed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), has many facets but relies primarily on televised anti-dmg public service ads (PSAs) and is by far the largest federally funded drug abuse prevention effort in history. This strong dependence on the mass media in prevention efforts is not unusual—the mass media are the primary or leading components in a variety of public health campaigns and frequently are the only component (Backer, Rogers, & Sopory, 1992; Flay, 1987; Rice & Atkin, 1989). As Bauman et al. (1991) note, "This is the most common and practical application of mass media in public health and, unlike multiple-component approaches, is capable of ready distribution on a