Working with the Media to Promote Teen Pregnancy Prevention

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MAKING IT HAPPEN120Florida’s six-year EducationNow and Babies Later campaignseeks to promote abstinenceamong fifth and sixthgraders through TV and radioads, along with other activities.The Idaho Governor’s Council onAdolescent Pregnancy Preventionruns a campaign, Sex Lasts aMoment, Being a ParentLasts Your Whole Life. Theywant to reach 95 percent ofIdaho teens ages 12-17 with amessage to delay sexual activity.Other campaigns have linkedtheir goals to those of relatedhealth promotion campaigns:The Michigan AbstinencePartnership targets 9- to 15-year-olds and their parents witha message of abstinence fromsex, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.The Mississippi State Departmentof Health’s Take Care Campaignseeks to reduce teen pregnancyand infant mortality rates byencouraging teens, especiallysexually active teens, to takecare of their health by protectingthemselves from the consequencesof unprotected sex.Because behavior change—theultimate goal of many PSA campaigns—isso hard to achieve, itis a good idea to set interimgoals, as well. These may berelated to the process of creatingthe PSA campaign or may bemeasures of how widely andwell your messages reach thetarget audience.The interim goal for Idaho’s SexLasts a Moment, Being a ParentLasts Your Whole Life campaignis to achieve a better than 70percent message recall rateamong the target audience.Coordinate your PSAcampaign with otherprevention activitiesYour PSA campaign should bepart of a larger, integrated initiative.Campaigns are mosteffective when they are combinedwith other programs atthe local level. If you want yourPSAs to motivate your audienceto do something, you must offerthem opportunities, support, ormore information if they are totake the next step.Invest in audienceresearchInvesting the time and resourcesto learn about your target audienceand to test your messageswith them is absolutely critical.The material earlier in thischapter can help you plan waysto carry out this task.Craft a persuasivemessageA PSA campaign is like any otherad campaign: you are sellingsomething. However, selling achange in behavior (social marketing)is much harder than
getting someone to change hisor her brand of toothpaste(commercial marketing). Socialmarketing has the great challengeof changing deeplyingrained attitudes and behaviors.Behaviors related to teenpregnancy are influenced bymany factors, too many to begreatly affected by media messagesalone. If your goal is tochange your audience’s longtermbehavior, commercial marketingtechniques suggest youfollow these steps in craftingyour message (DeJong &Winsten, 1998):• Highlight the seriousness ofthe problem and get the audienceto reevaluate their ownrisk. For example, make itclear to lawmakers that thehigh rate of teen pregnancycontributes to all kinds ofFIELD NOTESsocial problems, or that itmeans teens will likely remainpoor as adults.• Anticipate the audience’sresistance to the message andpresent the advantages of thechanged behavior. Tell boysthat being sexually responsibleis what makes them men.• Teach behavior skills. It is notenough to tell teens to “sayno.” Show them behaviors toemulate.• Build the audience’s selfconfidenceabout being ableto make the change. Convinceteens that talking to theirpartners about condoms isnot too embarrassing.• Show them that their peersare adopting the behavior.Use teen voices or actors orcite survey results.121MEDIAMessage DOs and DON’Ts forPSA campaignsPractitioners who have workedwith teens on message developmentoffer these tips:• Scare tactics and negativeimages can backfire.• Teens do not like to think ofthemselves as teens. Teensand preteens are more receptiveto messages from peopletwo or three years older thanthemselves.• Use images that are visuallysimilar to what teens usuallywatch (music videos andaction movies).• Immediate consequences(tonight, tomorrow) are farmore real to some teens thanlong-term ones.Reprinted with permission fromthe National Campaign to PreventTeen Pregnancy. (1997a). Sendingthe message: State-based mediacampaigns for teen pregnancyprevention. Washington, DC:Author.
Page 4 and 5: MAKING IT HAPPEN102hours, confident
Page 6 and 7: MAKING IT HAPPEN104campaign to dela
Page 8 and 9: MAKING IT HAPPENkernel from which y
Page 10 and 11: Core message worksheetDesired Resul
Page 12 and 13: Selecting a media optionOPTIONCONSI
Page 14 and 15: Working with the news mediaMAKING I
Page 16 and 17: MAKING IT HAPPEN114Using the tools
Page 18 and 19: FIELD NOTESMAKING IT HAPPEN116Getti
Page 20 and 21: MAKING IT HAPPEN118• Do not go
Page 24 and 25: MAKING IT HAPPEN122• Create a buz
Page 26 and 27: ConclusionMedia campaigns designed
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Page 32 and 33: TABLE 2Sample media messages for a
Page 34 and 35: TABLE 4Sample facts and stats sheet
Page 36: TABLE 4 (cont.)BRING “BEST BETS T

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