Need for Social Marketing Campaign to Combat Teen Marijuana Use

Need for social marketing campaign to combat teen marijuana use

Written Assignment #6

Sara Quale

6/14/14

MPH 588/Marketing in Public Health

Lea Pounds The target audience for this program is made up of parents and caregivers of children in middle school including those about to enter middle school. This group of individuals seeks to guide their children in making the right choices so the children can take advantage of the opportunities ahead of them. Typically, parents and caregivers of children this age have busy schedules and face household stresses that come with raising an adolescent.

The program will encourage this audience to talk to their children about using marijuana, explaining the consequences of the behavior and presenting it as a crucial choice the children will have to make. Communication to the audience may be segmented further here as we determine current actions of parents. Parents and caregivers who already have open communication with their children may be in the action stage of the Precaution Adoption Process

Model (PAPM) and more prepared to initiate conversations about marijuana (Pounds, 2014).

Other parents and caregivers may be in early stages of the model and require communications that provide more education about the susceptibility and severity of the issue (Pounds, 2014).

Barriers standing between the audience and the action revolve around perceptions held by the parents and caregivers. The perceived ability to reach out to their children will impact whether parents take that step. Some parents may perceive that regardless of their attempts, the message won’t have any impact (perceived poor efficacy). Other parents and caregivers also may perceive the problem of teen marijuana use either is minimal, or the health risks and consequences are minimal. Because the state of Colorado already has voted to legalize marijuana, many parents may disagree that the drug poses health risks to individuals including minors.

The audience benefit to engaging in this program action is to prevent health and lifestyle consequences that stem from teen use of marijuana. Overall, the program’s message is that by having parents and caregivers educate their children about marijuana use, they will preserve their freedom, independence and autonomy through better health, economic freedoms and legal freedoms.

To provide support for this behavior change, the program will emphasize the primary socialization theory (PST) that people adopt social norms during childhood and adolescence based on influences from the family, school and close peer groups (Nurco & Lerner, 1999). We will outline information regarding the impacts of marijuana use in teens and help parents and caregivers understand that the normative beliefs they set for their children and the information they provide has the greatest influence on the decisions their children will make regarding drug use.

The best openings to reach this target audience are during times when they are thinking specifically about stages of their children’s lives. The program will provide information through brochures, speakers and posters through registration packets, at school registration events and back to school nights for students in middles school including fifth graders preparing to attend middle school. Children who participate in sports are required to have a sports physical by a medical professional, so the program can work with physicians as an avenue to reach the parents with educational information. Finally, I would create a social media campaign with a website for more information, online advertising and television through a partnership with a local news station to create a broader awareness of the campaign’s brand

The image conveyed in this program is one of helping to preserve opportunities for our children through informed decision making. The campaign will capitalize on the open spaces, mountains and colorful scenery available in the state to portray opportunity if one pursues a healthy lifestyle. That will contrast with the image of poor health and a hazy future in store for someone who chooses to start smoking pot at an early age. To illustrate that parents are responsible for guiding their children, the image of the campaign will be a parent holding the hand of a child on a walk or hike with the line “We have high hopes for our children.” The next image is of a child as a teen in a smoke-filled room getting high. The line will read: “But not that high.” Then the message encourages parents to talk to their children about marijuana.

Role of Theory Both the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) and the Health

Behavior Model help in analyzing and creating a communications strategy to reach this audience.

The PAPM will help to identify where a person is along a continuum of awareness of an issue

(Pounds, 2014). The Health Behavior Model asserts that a person’s belief about a certain disease and what impacts that disease might have on them will determine what actions they take

(Pounds, 2014). The PAPM will help define the audience and what benefits they seek. A parent who is unaware of an issue or unengaged will need communications that are tailored toward consciousness raising or dramatic relief. If the parent has decided to act, they may desire communications that identify rewards for taking action. The Health Belief Model is useful in drafting those communications to show the risks related to smoking marijuana and the benefits parents can attain by talking to teens about this issue.

Threat appeal The image and messaging used in this campaign constitutes a threat appeal. The message is that parents should talk to their children about the consequences of using marijuana in order to help their children avoid losing opportunities later in life. It’s the threat of those lost opportunities. Factors to consider when crafting a threat/fear appeal are perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and perceived efficacy. This campaign will use the image of an average parent and young child walking in a familiar setting and then flash forward to the child as a teen smoking pot in an unsavory setting. The message about high hopes but not that high is used to convey the image of dashed dreams. This approach also will be important to reach those parents who are in the unaware or unengaged stages of the PAPM. For those in the action stages, but concerned about their ability to connect with their children, messaging also must convey the ease of taking this action.

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