Alcohol and Tobacco Counter-Ads: Stealing a Page From Billboard Utilizing Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions

• Published in: The Journal of school health 2011-06, Vol.81 (6), p.359-363, Article 359
• Main Authors: Hall, P. Cougar, Lindsay, Gordon B., West, Joshua H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescents; Advertising; Advertising - methods; Alcohol Drinking - prevention & control; Behavioral Objectives; Company business management; Curriculum; Drinking; Drug Abuse; Grade 9; Health aspects; Health Behavior; Health Education; Health Education - methods; Health Promotion; Humans; Management; Mass Media Effects; Media Literacy; Methods; Nicotiana; Perception; Persuasive Communication; Public health; Schools; Secondary School Students; Smoking; Smoking Prevention; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Tobacco; Values; Young people
• ISSN: 0022-4391; 1746-1561
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00603.x

The influence of media on adolescents' health practices and behaviors, including personal values, beliefs, and perceived norms cannot be overstated. Youth media consumption continues to increase. Media messages are carefully designed to persuade the consumer to believe or do something. Some of the most persuasive media messages can be found in print advertisements selling alcohol and tobacco products. These messages are carefully crafted constructions, which understandably never tell youth the whole truth regarding the use of these products. Media literacy teaching techniques focused on helping students to critically consume and create media are essential in achieving necessary school health behavioral objectives related to use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Although health education efforts today should not encourage students to use graffiti for health promotion, teaching them to "talk back" to deceptive and harmful media messages through the use of counter-ads is recommended. As advertisers have long targeted teens' sense of youthful rebellion, this teaching technique ironically allows students to channel this rebellious spirit with pens and markers toward the alcohol and tobacco companies who exploit them. This article presents an activity that is designed for students in grades 9 through 12 and may be adapted for younger learners as well. This activity is most appropriate when preceded by lessons covering the basic physical, social, and emotional short- and long-term consequences of alcohol and tobacco use, as well as information focused on correcting the misperceptions students have regarding the prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use among peers. (Contains 2 figures.)