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National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign
Phase 1 (Report No. 1)
3.2.1.1 Influence of Anti-Drug Ads on Parents
Because the baseline site visits took place prior to the Media Campaign, parents had only seen PSAs. Many of the focus group parents felt strongly that PSA anti-drug efforts (free) were inadequate compared with costly pro-drug (alcohol, beer, and tobacco) advertising. Some parents in Denver reported that when ads of any kind come on, they "channel-surf." Other parents reported that anti-drug PSAs are not important sources of information and they get their anti-drug information from local organizations. As parents in Boise said, "PSAs tend to add to what parents already know --
if parents aren't already doing anything to begin with, the ads probably won't make much difference."
Parents at other sites reported that they liked and were influenced by the PDFA advertisements that were aired as PSAs. Many parents in the focus groups reported that they used anti-drug PSAs as opportunities and tools for talking to their children about drugs. A participant in the Sioux City focus group said, "I know I do. I watch the commercials and I'll make remarks to my son `you know, you see that stuff will really hurt you.' And he says `Mom, stop...Mom, from the very beginning you have taught me that drugs and things are bad for you; believe it or not it has stuck in my brain, I already know it, OK?"
In a similar vein, an Atlanta parent said, "I find anything that's got to do with it, gang-related or somebody going to jail. And I sit there and I talk to them. I say `you see what he did? Now what is he thinking about that?' And I talk to him through the movie or whatever, if it's got to do with drugs or anything like that."
When parents were asked directly whether they think the ads influence their children, parents said yes. Parents in an Atlanta focus group said that positive role models, especially basketball players, get their attention and that "the whole thing is getting their attention; they'll pay attention [to] somebody they know. Somebody popular." Parents in a Sioux City urban focus group said ads that were especially powerful for them were ads that "...you know, show home movies, videos, of the child or teenager, and then they were gone, hit by a drunk driver.... That's a reality check. I think they should never stop --
that's something that should always be there."
Parents frequently commented on the ways TV or radio served as a negative influence in their children's lives. The parents in one urban focus group especially objected to certain aspects of TV: "Television plays a top role in it because they show a lot of marijuana smoking, crack-cocaine smoking, all intravenous drug use. They show a lot of fighting. Cop stories. Beating up, you know. There's enough violence on there, and with a lot of violence they show a lot of drug usage. So again, if you don't screen your children they gonna say `why don't we watch that?'"
Parents in both the target and comparison sites emphasized that parents on the whole do not talk enough with their children about drugs, and parents who do not already talk to their children are unlikely to use the ads as conversational starting points.
