 |
 |
|
|
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign
Phase 1 (Report No. 1)
3.2.2.3 Parent Ideas for New Ads/Improvements
The focus group parents offered a wealth of suggestions for improving and creating new ads. Their ideas centered around the following recommendations:
- Show the consequences of drug use -- Consequences include impact on health, physical appearance, other family members, school and job performance, and lifespan. However, many parents cautioned that the ads should not exaggerate the dangers of drugs or they will lose credibility among youth, and they should not be too disturbing or too negative. Parents in Sioux City and Washington, D.C., felt that the more graphic the ads, the more effective they would be. One parent from the non-urban parent focus group in Atlanta suggested showing youth what it looks like to be a "24-year-old crack head," depicting a man in a wheelchair whose life has been ruined by drug use. "If you're gonna do something on TV, hit 'em right between the eyes with it." The idea that anti-drug ads need to be reality-based was emphasized by parents in Washington, D.C. One parent said that ads need to show what the inside of the body looks like after drug use, "just like they show the wrecked cars from alcohol [-related crashes]. They need to go right to the point because we underestimate our youth today."
- Feature youth who are similar to those targeted by the ad -- Youth can better relate to what is being said if the ad features young people like them in age, gender, racial/ethnic background, language, and geographic location. Filming anti-drug ads in the communities and using community youth would heighten the authenticity of the ads. Parents from Baltimore, Houston, Portland, and Sioux City stressed the importance of using young people whom teenagers can relate to in anti-drug advertising. Parents from Portland said the ads should be appropriate for the regional area and should include representatives of all minority groups to increase their effectiveness. Parents in Sioux City felt that if the ads used local youth and adults and focused on local programs, news, and law enforcement, they would be more relevant to the community.
- Include positive portrayals of youth -- Some ads ought to highlight positive things about non-users, congratulate youth for doing what is right, and show how youth can grow up to lead productive and successful lives if they do not use drugs. Parents from Washington, D.C., perceived that ads needed to highlight positive things about non-users and show how youth can grow up to lead productive lives if they do not use drugs. A parent from Hartford suggested that the media focus attention on youth who are successful achievers. She said "focus on that and the other youth will follow." Parents also reported that ads should present messages with a positive emphasis that offer alternatives to drug use.
- Provide information parents need -- Anti-drug ads should help educate parents about the warning signs of drug use, encourage parents to talk to their children about drugs, and help parents improve the way they talk to their children about drugs. Parents from Tucson felt very strongly that future ads or campaigns should be geared toward helping parents and teens talk more openly about drugs and other issues that affect their lives. Parents from the Hartford focus groups reported that ads needed to focus more on parenting skills and better communication between parents and children.
- Address parental use of drugs -- Ads should address situations in which parents use drugs with or in the presence of their children. For example, ads should tell children and youth where to turn for help if they know that a parent is using. Parents in Portland expressed concerns about heavy marijuana use and about parents who use drugs in the presence of their children; they suggested that future ads in their city should address this issue.
Parents were asked about the importance of minority ownership of media outlets in delivering drug prevention messages to youth. Parents agreed that minority youth need minority role models and that minority-targeted media are more effective for minority youth. Native American parents from Denver said that anti-drug ads would have more impact if they were published in Native American-owned magazines and newspapers. Parents from Memphis felt that the use of minority-owned, or more specifically, minority-targeted media would definitely increase the effectiveness of ads for minority youth. They believed that minority youth would more readily accept the ads because they were delivered by someone in their own group.
However, there were many parents who suggested that the ownership of the media was less important than the target audience and the content of what was broadcast. In order to reach youth, the ads have to appear where youth will see or hear them, which includes media that feature music, shows, stories, or articles that youth like. Parents from Atlanta said the medium itself is probably more important than whether the outlet is minority-owned; they reported that "radio is the best way to reach minorities and nobody knows or cares who owns them [the stations]; they listen to those stations because they play what they [minorities] want to hear." Some parents, like those in Sioux City, cautioned that seeing an ad on a minority-owned station does not necessarily make it more believable, and perhaps minority-targeted messages are most significant when there are language differences. However, parents agreed that ads always depicting white youth tend to be irrelevant to and ineffective with minority youth.
