Strategies for an effective youth counter-marketing program: recommendations from commercial marketing experts
McKenna, J.; Gutierrez, K.; McCall, K.
Journal of Public Health Management and Practice Jphmp 6(3): 7-13
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 1078-4659 PMID: 10848486 DOI: 10.1097/00124784-200006030-00004Document Number: 511613
Intensive and sustained efforts to "counter-market" tobacco among teenagers are necessary to negate the "friendly familiarity" created by tobacco advertising and to communicate the true health and social costs of tobacco use. Counter-marketing campaigns should: highlight a tobacco-free lifestyle as the majority lifestyle of diverse and interesting individuals; explain the dangers of tobacco in a personal, emotional way; offer youth empowerment and control; use multiple voices, strategies, and executions; offer constructive alternatives to tobacco use; and portray smoking as unacceptable and undesirable for everyone. Counter-marketing activities should work in concert with other interventions to alter social norms regarding tobacco.