3.1.2.3 Youth Ideas for New Ads/Improvements

Youth focus group participants were asked during the intermediate site visits to give their suggestions for anti-drug ads. Suggestions clustered into recommendations pertaining to content, messenger, timing, and medium. They also provided ideas related to cultural relevancy. Almost all of their suggestions pertained to television advertisements.

The most frequent recommendations by youth in all age groups focused on content of the ads, emphasizing depiction of the effects and consequences of drug use. Youth often used the words realistic and graphic in making their recommendations. Youth suggested portraying the negative effects of drugs on the mind and body and on friends, family, and newborn babies. They also suggested showing the positive effects when one stops using drugs. A further suggestion was to show comparisons between drug users and nonusers. Ideas from Milwaukee and Tucson high school students included showing the effects of drug use on the user's sex appeal, children watching their addicted mothers using drugs, or relating youths' true personal stories about drugs.

The second greatest number of suggestions (after content) related to the messenger in the ads. Youth suggested using celebrities in the ads (e.g., Michael Jordan or Oscar de la Hoya); however, they also commented on their concern that celebrities often have drug problems themselves.

Many of the youth in target sites suggested using young people in television ads and creating scenarios that involve teens talking to other teens (e.g., using high school students in ads targeted to middle school youth). Tucson students felt that youth could be involved in creating and developing the ads, and Hartford and Milwaukee students suggested using local youth in the ads rather than using ads that were developed for use nationwide.

Suggestions about the timing of the ads and the types of media that should be used to deliver anti-drug messages also were provided. Youth in focus groups thought that the anti-drug television ads should be shown during time periods when youth are watching television. Using a variety of media also was suggested; for example, using more radio ads, expanding cartoons to the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network stations, writing feature articles about personal experiences in teen magazines, inviting audience discussion after a 1-hour movie, and incorporating anti-drug messages into live concert appearances by rap artists.

Only those focus groups with minority youth participants were asked if anti-drug ads would have greater credibility if they were presented on minority-owned stations or in minority-owned publications. In responding, students focused instead on the actors used in the ads in terms of their cultural appropriateness. For example, students from Sioux City, Portland, Tucson, and Hartford agreed that the ads needed to show mixed race situations and use black or Hispanic actors so that youth could identify with the ads.

Those who responded to the issue regarding the relationship between credibility and the use of minority-owned outlets had mixed views. Students from Portland and Tucson felt that minority-owned stations should be used because many minorities listen to them and the ads would have wide exposure if played on these stations. Students from Atlanta, Boise, Harrisburg, and Nashville believed that viewership had less to do with whether a station was minority-owned than with the programs themselves and their content. These students also believed that quality and sophistication of the anti-drug ads was more important than ownership of the media outlet.