Promoting youth smokefree behaviour: An evaluation of a social norms campaign

Although youth smokefree campaigns have featured several themes, recent evidence suggests a norms-based approach that demonstrates the negative social consequences of smoking is most effective. The “Smoking – Not Our Future” campaign drew on both social identity theory and stereotype priming theory, and used youth role models to promote smokefree attitudes and behaviours among adolescent and young adult New Zealanders. Findings from the campaign evaluation suggest it strongly reinforced non-smokers, though had less effect on current smokers. We suggest future youth-oriented campaigns could employ stronger negative social consequences to target committed youth smokers, whose smoking-related attitudes and behaviour are more intractable.

Research highlights► We evaluate a norms-based smokefree social marketing campaign. ► Social identity theory suggests responses will reflect individuals’ smoking status. ► The campaign reinforced non-smokers’ identity. ► Stronger measures are required to modify established smokers’ behaviour.