PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGNS
INITIATING AND EVALUATING PUBLIC AWARENESS
CAMPAIGNS
Introduction:
Jennifer Bishop
Office of National Drug Control Policy
United States
Crafting Effective Messages for
Behavioral Changes
Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr. P.H.
Associate Professor
Department of Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
United States
Telephone: (210) 348-0255
Fax: (210) 348-0554
armirez@bcm.tmc.edu
Dr. Ramirez gave an overview of the ONDCP
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign’s
behavioral change guidelines that are used
for its outreach to Hispanic communities.
Main points:
- Increasing drug use among youth in
the early 1990’s poses a significant
public health threat that is best
reduced using a Social-Cognitive theory
approach to offset psychosocial
influences.
- Acculturated Hispanics in the United States show higher rates of drug abuse
compared to immigrants. Thus, the
Media Campaign is focusing specifically
on reaching first generation teens.
- To reach Hispanic audiences in the US,
the Media Campaign will emphasize
cultural sensitivity, instill importance of
traditional values, model positive
behavior and increase familial
communication.
Developing and Implementing
Community Awareness
Antonieta Martin, Ph.D.
Researcher
Johns Hopkins University
United States
Dr. Martin presented an overview of a youth
drug prevention campaign underway in
Mexico, that is produce though the
assistance from John Hopkins School of
Hygiene and Public Health.
Main points:
Developing and Implementing
Community Awareness
Isabel Gomez-Bassols, Ph.D.
Radio Unica Network
United States
Telephone: (305) 463-5045
Fax: (305) 463-5001
Dr. Bessols hosts a radio program that helps
families deal with drug abuse. Her
presentation shares her experiences using
radio as a prevention medium.
Main points:
- To get a drug prevention message out
to the community, you need an
attention grabbing mechanism, a radio talk show on drug use in the context of
familial effect, has been successful.
- To be successful you must provide
resources to empower individuals and
families to overcome their drug
problems. This can be facilitated
through creating partnerships with
organizations that can provide the
information, and by using methods that
will initiate dialogs within families.
- Family development is necessary in
prevention and the radio can play a role.
Mario Bejos
Liber Addictus
Mexico
This session focused on Liber Addictus a
Mexican magazine designed to discuss the
use of mass media in the prevention of drug
use and addiction treatment.
Main points:
- Liber Addictus has transformed itself
from a small scientific paper/publication
into a large publication that addresses
the issue of all addictions.
- The greatest challenge to reducing
addiction and its prevention, is a
growing "toxic culture" which normalizes
and promotes drug use and other
disruptive behaviors. Toxic cultures
portray addictive behaviors as cool while
labels healthy habits as anti-social.
- The media plays an important role in
promulgating addiction as it adds to the
creation of this toxic culture.
Evaluating Media Campaigns
Terry Zobeck, Ph.D.
Office of National Drug Control Policy
United States
Telephone: (202) 395-5503
Fax : (202)395-6729
Dr. Zobeck gave an overview of the
methodology currently in use to evaluate
the National Youth Anti-Drug Media
Campaign.
Main Points:
- ONDCP is doing an externally contracted
impact evaluation of the campaign
which will determine the campaign’s
overall effectiveness. Additionally the
agency has already created internal
performance measures/goals that are
used to evaluate the campaign’s efforts.
- The campaign initially collected base line
behavioral data from in school surveys.
With time its become increasingly
difficult to conduct survey’s in school
and have since began using household
surveys which use hour long in person
interviews using youth and parent
dyads.
- Continual evaluation during the life of
the Media Campaign will initiate change
in the campaign during its lifetime.
Jaime Quintanilla
Mexico’s Central Institute of Justice (CIJ)
Mexico
Mr. Quintanilla discussed the methods
presently used by (CIJ) to evaluate its mass
media drug prevention initiatives.
Main Points:
- A majority of data that was collected
was derived from television advertising
that featured an 800 number to receive
information on treatment and to order
materials. Once the CIJ began using
television advertising, call volume to the
800 number increased by 500%.
Respondents had a number of questions
that were not directly related to
treatment. A Gallup poll was later used
to gauge national attitudes towards
drugs.
- CIJ established a number of public and
private partnerships to increase the
reach of their messages, especially with
children.
- The feedback received via the phone
lines gave them solid qualitative data by
which to revise their future efforts.
Building Private Public Partnership for
Social Marketing
Beverly Schwartz
Senior Vice President
Fleishman Hillard International Communications
United States
Ms. Schwartz gave an overview of
Fleishman-Hillard’s work with the National
Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign to
disseminate drug prevention messages in
local arenas.
Main Points:
- Social marketing is voluntary behavior
change for the benefit of society, which
is distinct from consumer product
marketing. It works because it offers
benefits that people want.
- To promote drug prevention messages;
you must extend these themes into
communities by using non-traditional
methods, and public/private
partnerships.
- To facilitate these partnerships, you
must know what you want from you
partner, and know what you can do to
help them. Together you must work to
what resources are available through
the venture to reach your goal.
The Azteca Foundation
Eduardo Chacón Vizcaino
Mexico
Described their efforts to use a social
marketing approach to develop traditional
and non-traditional partnerships to prevent
drug use among youth.
Main points:
- Campaign messages need to extend into
the community.
- Partnerships are developed around what
they can do for you and what you can
do for them.
- Campaigns need to give their audiences
more than just information, skills and
support are necessary. You must tell
them how, not only why.
