MISSION

EVALUATING THE CHARACTERISTICS THAT INFLUENCE PERSUASIVENESS OF SECOND HAND TOBACCO SMOKE
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Maansi Bansal-Travers, PhD; Roswell Park Cancer Center; YCSA 2008
The Task Force on Community Preventive Services at the CDC recently called for more research to
establish the features of advertising that increase support for adoption of smoke-free standards, especially in
homes and cars. There are not any studies that have explicitly attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of
different SHS advertisements targeting parents to motivate adoption of such standards for their home and
car. Dr. Bansal-Travers’ study will fill this knowledge gap. This experimental study will examine how
different characteristics of anti-SHS television advertisements such as the execution features of the
advertisement (i.e., use of testimonials versus. negative visceral images), its focus (i.e., health effects versus
social norms), and intended target audience (i.e., parents versus general audience) interact to affect
comprehension, appraisal, recall, engagement with the advertising, and intention to adopt smoke-free
standards in households and cars where one or both parents smoke. It is hypothesized that advertisements,
which utilize personal testimonials and dramatize the health consequences of SHS exposure, and which
specifically target parents will be better recalled, appraised more highly, and rated higher in terms of
increasing support for smoke-free home and car standards compared to advertisements that do not share
these characteristics. Another question addressed by this project is the extent to which the findings can be
generalized across different cities and countries. This study will employ a sample of 40 advertisements
designed to communicate risks of SHS exposure, collected by the Office on Smoking and Health at the
CDC. Advertisements will be shown to parents in Buffalo, NY, and Columbia, SC, to see if parents in
different cities respond in the same way to anti-SHS messages and appeals. Ten Spanish-language
advertisements will also be tested in a pilot test in Mexico City to examine how these methods translate in
different countries and languages. Analyses will include ranking persuasiveness of different ads, what themes
and characteristics predict higher rates of parent comprehension and overall appraisal, and at follow-up, what
ads persuade higher rates of recall, discussion, and intention to adopt smoke-free home and car standards.
DISEASE PREVENTION
COMPLETED RESEARCH
DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SMOKING RESTRICTIONS
Lisa A. Bero, PhD; University of California, San Francisco; CIA 2003
Dr. Bero developed a history for initiatives banning smoking on airlines by conducting a systematic review
to identify all governmental standards that restricted or banned smoking on airlines in the United States and
abroad. The PI determined the following timelines: 1) all U.S. federal regulatory proceedings pertaining to
smoking restrictions on passenger aircraft and their outcomes from 1969 to 1985; 2) all federal attempts to
restrict airline smoking from 1969 through 2000; 3) the adoption of smoking restrictions on aircraft placed
in the context of other important events; 4) international initiatives restricting airline smoking. The PI
performed an assessment of the relative roles of research evidence and other factors restricting smoking on
airlines. Using the 1987 legislation banning smoking on flights of 2 hours or less and the extension of that
ban to include most domestic flights was adopted in 1989. All available legislative debates, hearings,
committees, and conference reports on each of the two initiatives were compiled. All of the key factors that
contributed to the enactment of the airline smoking bans in 1987 and 1989 were outlined. The extensive
timelines that were developed and thorough identification of tobacco industry activities over the 30 year
period provided an understanding of the scientific, social, and political context in which these two initiatives
were enacted. Taken together, this information makes it possible to discern the relative importance of the
various factors that went into the enactment of the smoking bans.
FAMRI Supported Publications
Baba A, Cook D, McGarity T, Bero LA. Legislating “sound science” regulation: Role of the tobacco
industry. Am J Public Health 2005;95:s20-s27.
Dalton S, Dunsby J, Bero LA. Narrative skills in the shaping of workplace smoking restrictions legislation
Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, 2004.
Jewell C, Rose D, Bero LA. Public participation in the regulatory process: The case of California’s
ergonomics rule Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Law and Society Association, 2005.
Lopipero P, Bero LA. Tobacco interests or the public interest: 20 years of industry strategies to undermine
airline smoking restrictions. Tob Control 2006;15:323-332.
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