Federal and State Government health campaigns have been quick to employ shock-tactics in the past with a no holds barred approach to anti-smoking, drug abuse, binge drinking and drink driving. But whether these tactics achieve their intended result is up for debate and there's a shift towards positive reinforcement in campaigns occurring.
Three recent public health campaigns, Quit Victoria's anti-smoking drive, the DrinkWise classy drinking ads and the Victorian Government's anti-drug campaign all take a very different approach to changing consumer behaviour for the better, but what actually works?
Quit Victoria’s latest campaign focuses on the triggers of smoking rather than on smoking’s side effects. The ad, created by JWT, shows people under stress, at a party and drinking coffee as common triggers. The animated creative is also a step away from the stark realism of ads in the past.
The changing face of government health campaigns is evident in the shift from the idea that every cigarette you smoke is doing you damage, to the idea that every cigarette you don’t smoke is doing you good.
Angela Morris, executive planning director for JWT, said: “There are certainly more varied approaches in the market now and it’s due to increasing depth of understanding of what it takes to motivate behaviour change. The old assumption that a shock or fear based approach is always the way to go is no longer. For example, with young people, optimism bias sometimes means they self-exempt from the consequences since they don’t think it will happen to them, it doesn’t matter how shocking it is, and many older audiences have become desensitized to the shock over time. “
The “Triggers” campaign aims to be a supportive and encouraging approach to stopping smoking, a move away from the Federal Government’s “Stop before the suffering starts” activity that used the line “If you smoke, death could be the least of your worries.”
Michael Godwin, managing director of JWT Melbourne, said when the campaign launched that “unlike previous Quit Victoria campaigns, Triggers provides supportive advice and encouragement to relapsed smokers.”
Similarly, DrinkWise took a different approach with its latest responsible drinking efforts, but the ‘How to drink properly’ ads , created by Clemenger Melbourne, were slammed by public health figures who claimed the ad’s advice on “keeping it classy” and knowing your limits would encourage young people to drink.
Despite the campaign’s not-so-positive reception from some quarters, DrinkWise CEO John Scott, stands by the approach and explained that the ads were a different “tone”, one that accepted that young people were going to drink and a move away from scare-based tactics that according to focus group research, were ineffective within an 18-24 age group.
Shock tactics aren't dead though, and fear can still be a powerful motivator. The Victorian Government’s anti-drug campaign ‘Ice: It won’t happen to me’ gives a dark look into drug addiction and how it can happen to anyone. While not explicit in nature it takes a middle ground between extreme shock-tactics and softer approaches like JWT’s ‘Triggers’.
Paul Waldren, managing director of the Health Consultancy, believes government ad campaigns aren’t as effective as policy change, “[Governments] should support public education and greater literacy, with steps to promote a healthier behaviour that is simple, smart and practical.”
And the statistics are with him - there are no conclusive statistics that would indicate any of the health campaigns run by State or Federal government have led directly to lowered numbers of health problems connected with smoking, obesity, drug use or skin cancer, he claims.
Even the Federal Government’s famous ‘Slip, slop, slap’ campaign that has run for the better part of three decades shows no correlation to lowered rates of skin cancer, in fact over the past three decades the numbers show the opposite. The Australian Bureau of Statistics results show that there has been a significant increase in the number of people with susceptible skin tones developing melanoma with the rate increasing from 5.9 per 100,000 in 1982 to 6.3 in 2009.
While one approach isn’t going to resonate with every audience, using varied approaches from positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, using real sufferers, relatable actors, animations, suggesting methods of prevention and hard hitting one-liners, can mean connecting with more people.
Angela Morris, executive planning director for JWT, said: “Behaviour change is a complex subject - each audience and challenge is different requiring a range of approaches. In the case of quitting cessation this calls for a sophisticated multi-approach strategy for Quit, with a tailored approach for each audience need.”
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