Past research related to health promotion and public service announcements (PSAs) has generally found that PSAs are successful at public education but are relatively ineffective at promoting appropriate health-related behaviors. According to Wallack (1990), progress toward health promotion must move beyond the standard PSA. This study explored the effectiveness of a soap opera (All My Children) promoting bone-marrow testing when used in combination with a PSA. The investigation found that the addition of a PSA at the end of one episode significantly improved the soap opera's persuasibility in promoting bone-marrow testing by increasing audience members' knowledge, attitudes, and actual behaviors related to bone-marrow testing. Implications for future media campaigns directed at health promotion are discussed.
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Klingle et al. (1994) studied this question.
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