Success and Failure in Anti-Smoking Campaigns
There have been a number of highly publicized anti-smoking campaigns over the years and some have been more successful than others. The reason for this is that if the psychology of the anti-smoking message is poorly constructed then it will not have the desired effect on those who hear it.
Simply throwing out an anti-smoking message does not mean that the message will be effective. There are a number of elements to embody and then there are elements to avoid. Of all the elements to avoid, a top down preachy postulating message will generally be a complete failure.
Avoid Preaching, Avoid Self-Parody
If there ever was any solid advice that could be given towards a successful anti-smoking program it would to avoid being preachy. Yes, there will be those anti-smoking materials that are sincere in their preachy nature but what needs to be understood here is that when a message is overly preachy it borders on parody. This was a common problem found in the mental hygiene films of the 1950's and 1960's.
Now, if your goal is to make people take your message serious what would it be if the people watching the message were laughing at it. Instead, the effect of such messages will be the opposite of the desired result. If you are trying to position smoking as dangerous, but do so in a manner that is ridiculous then people (particularly young ones) will assume that smoking is not dangerous and in not something to worry about. Hence, they may even take up the habit of smoking.
Taking a Better Approach
When it comes to presenting a successful message it would be a far better idea to state facts in an understated manner while being creative at the same time. One of the legendary commercials in this manner was the famous "This is your brain on drugs" commercial of the 1980's.
In terms of anti-smoking commercials, the recent biting public service announcements that attack the duplicity of the cigarette industry have had a devastating effect on the ability of the tobacco companies to effectively target younger customers. Again, it was a mix of facts, creativity and seriousness that made those campaign successful and not self important silliness.
Of course, there is no specific style of public service announcement that will automatically yield success, but there are certain methods that have proven to have been successful in the past. As such, these methods should be maintained.
