The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Ohio tobacco countermarketing stand brand calls on young people to take a stand against tobacco use based on aspirational messages and images of Ohio youth. Similar strategies have been used by national social marketing campaigns such as Legacy's truth® (Evans et al. 2002), CDC's Verb It's What You Do (Huhman et al. 2004), and ONDCP's National Youth Anti-drug Media Campaign (NIDA 2004). Having brand equity in truth® mediated the relationship between tobacco countermarking exposure and lower smoking uptake (Evans et al. 2005).

Methods: The study developed a stand brand equity scale with sub-scales on brand reaction, loyalty, popularity, and personality. The scale captures the extent to which youth associate stand with positive messages and images. The study conducted multinominal logistic regression between brand identification at baseline and smoking status at 8 months and 20 months later.

Results: This study suggests a causal association between stand popularity and smoking initiation: Youth with greater brand leadership/popularity at baseline were significantly less likely to smoke after 8 and 20 months (Odds ratios: 0.54 and 0.66, respectively.) This presentation reports the first-ever longitudinal evidence of health behavior change associated with a public health brand.

Conclusion: Findings can inform campaign planning and social marketers seeking to prevent youth tobacco use.