EFFECTS OF A STATEWIDE ANTISMOKING CAMPAIGN ON MASS-MEDIA MESSAGES AND SMOKING BELIEFS

Background. In 1985, The Minnesota Legislature initiated a long-term a nd broad-based program to deter adolescent tobacco use. The initiative was funded by higher taxes on tobacco products and combined school-ba sed programming, mass-media campaigns, and local community grants. The Minnesota-Wisconsin Adolescent Tobacco-Use Research Project was desig ned to evaluate this effort by monitoring adolescent tobacco use and r elated factors in Minnesota and Wisconsin from 1986 to 1990. The resul ts presented in this paper indicate that the Minnesota initiative dram atically increased Minnesota schoolchildren's reported exposure to the anti-smoking messages in the mass media but had little effect on smok ing-related beliefs or smoking behaviors. Conclusions. These results, together with the findings from other recent studies, suggest that eve n dramatic increases in exposure to anti-tobacco messages in the mass- media, in the absence of a substantial and sustained school-based toba cco prevention measures, may be insufficient to generate reductions in adolescent tobacco use. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.