In 1999, Philip Morris USA’s Youth Smoking Prevention department began a parent-directed advertising campaign with the message, “Talk to your kids about not smoking. They’ll listen.” When we began this campaign, it was based on
research that shows parents are one of the most important influences on their children’s decision not to smoke. We felt this was an important area of opportunity and we allocated significant resources to parent-directed mass media at that time. The
Talk. They’ll Listen. campaign encouraged parents to stay involved in their kids’ lives and keep talking to them about not smoking. We used qualitative and quantitative
research to assure that the ads clearly communicated the intended main message, and that they were effective in motivating parents to talk with their children about not smoking. In 2000, we expanded our
Talk. They’ll Listen. campaign to include Spanish-language television and print advertising.
Our
research strongly indicates that the
Talk. They’ll Listen. TV ads were effective at communicating clearly that parents should talk to their kids about not smoking, and, in turn, that they were effective at generating these parent-child conversations about not smoking. For example, a December 2006 quantitative study of more than 1,000 parents of kids 10-17 indicated that 60 percent of parents were aware of at least one of the television ads, and of those who were aware, 54 percent had a conversation with their child about not smoking.
Moreover, as part of the development protocol and prior to the airing of the ads, PM USA conducted qualitative and quantitative research with youth to identify and avoid unintended advertising take-away messages. Our research indicated that youth understood the main message and intended audience of these ads.
