Strategic and ethical issues in antismoking message development: how US public health campaigners conceptualize efficacy and ethicality

Abstract

Although there is literature discussing how social marketing and campaign planning steps can instruct health communicators to develop their work, the documentation of the planning process of antismoking campaigns is very limited. The purpose of the study is to fill in the gap with empirical findings that are focused on the development of antismoking messages and explore the strategic and ethical issues that public health campaigners are confronted with. A total of 22 public health officials and advertising agency professionals in the United States were interviewed about their experiences in conceptualization, production, and dissemination of antismoking messages. In a structured interview format with open-ended questions, interviewees were encouraged to talk at length and share their views. The conversations were audiotaped with permission, and the transcripts were systematically analyzed to yield a rich tapestry of anecdotes, metaphors, and pontifications grounded in interviewees' experiences. The findings indicated a strong diversity in the interviewees' approaches to tobacco control messages, despite the overt reliance on research to conceptualize effective messages. The reasoning regarding the use of emotion appeals, such as fear tactics, involves personal judgments and orientation on the value of health campaigns, along with assessments of local political and socio-culture atmosphere. In sum, these findings confirm the strategic importance of audience research and shed light on the implicit process in the development of antismoking messages, and the ethical dimensions identified in the current study further set forward the issues of ethical advocacy in future tobacco control programs.