What to Convey in Antismoking Advertisements for Adolescents: The use of Protection Motivation Theory to Identify Effective Message Themes

Antismoking advertising is increasingly used, but its message content is controversial. In an initial study in which adolescents coded 194 advertisements, the authors identified seven common message themes. Using protection motivation theory, the authors develop hypotheses regarding the message theme effects on cognitions and intentions and test them in an experiment involving 1667 adolescents. Three of the seven message themes increased adolescents’ nonsmoking intentions compared with a control; all did so by enhancing adolescents’ perceptions that smoking poses severe social disapproval risks. Other message themes increased health risk severity perceptions but were undermined by low perceived vulnerability.