The Montana Meth Project: A Critique and Proposed Alternative– Josh Uri
Introduction
The Montana Meth Project (MMP) was launched in 2005 in response to the significant toll being exacted on the state by methamphetamine (meth), an extremely addictive synthetic stimulant drug. In 2005, Montana ranked 5th in the nation for meth abuse (1), 50% of inmates were incarcerated for meth (2), and 50% of foster-care admissions were meth-related (2).
MMP’s campaign consists primarily of a series of advertisements depicting young meth users in graphic, extremely disturbing situations. The young meth users are portrayed as violent, treacherous, unhygienic, and manipulative. They are depicted attacking and stealing from family members, being raped, prostituting themselves, and visualizing themselves being violently mugged or paralyzed by a car accident and wishing these terrible things had happened to prevent them from trying meth for the first time (3).
According to the MMP website, the campaign has been a resounding success. MMP characterizes the campaign as a “research-validated” approach that reaches 70-90% of Montana youth age 12-17 on a weekly basis (4), and claims that the campaign has led to a reduction in Montana’s ranking from 5th to 39th in the nation for meth abuse (1), a 63% reduction in teen meth use (5), a 72% reduction in adult meth use (2), and a 62% reduction in meth-related crime (2).
However, most of MMP’s claims regarding the campaign’s success do not hold up under closer examination (6). Despite claims that the campaign is “research-based” and has been refined as a result of MMP’s surveys (7), the campaign has remained essentially the same since its inception, even though MMP’s data has shown that many teens believe the ads exaggerate the effects of meth use (8) and that there has been an increase in the perceived acceptability of methamphetamine use and a decrease in the perceived dangers of drug use following the campaign’s introduction (6). In addition, the internal validity of the MMP’s research is compromised by its use of a pre-experimental design, lacking an adequate control group from baseline and therefore making it impossible to draw the conclusion that any changes in use or attitudes toward meth have been caused by the campaign. Meth use was already declining in the 6 years prior to the campaign’s introduction (6), and other factors were at work during the same time period as the campaign—including the legal restrictions placed on sales of over-the-counter medications commonly used in the manufacture of meth in 2005 (9). These factors make it impossible to rely on the conclusion that any observed decreases in meth use were in fact caused by the MMP campaign.
In addition to the flaws in the MMP’s research design and its claims of success, there are significant flaws in the campaign’s conceptual design because it ignores several aspects of current knowledge and research regarding social psychology and marketing. First, the campaign uses principles of the Health Belief Model, assuming that its intended audience will use a rational cost/ benefit decision-making process in deciding whether or not to use meth. Second, the campaign attempts to “sell” its “product”—a meth-free lifestyle—by depicting the opposite, using extremely negative imagery and scare tactics instead of depicting something that its target audience actually wants. Finally, as reflected by survey results including some of MMP’s own research, the campaign’s approach is apt to generate psychological reactance in its target audience, i.e. the teens and young adults at whom the campaign is directed perceive its message as an attempt by an untrusted source to exert social influence in a freedom-limiting manner, leading the target audience to discount the campaign’s message and in some cases to adopt beliefs in direct opposition to those intended by the campaign.
Critique 1 – Assumed Rational Decision Making: The Health Belief Model
The Health Belief Model (HBM) assumes that people use a rational cost/ benefit analysis when making decisions that impact their health. The HBM assumes four basic psychological elements that impact decisions: 1) perceived susceptibility, 2) perceived severity, 3) perceived benefits, and 4) perceived barriers. Interventions based on the HBM attempt to impact one or more of these four elements in order to achieve the desired effect. In the case of the MMP, the campaign attempts primarily to increase its target audience’s perceived severity of the consequences from using meth, as well as the perceived susceptibility to becoming addicted to meth. The campaign’s attempt to influence perceived severity can easily be seen in its graphic depiction of meth users in a series of extreme and disturbing situations, and the attempt to influence perceived susceptibility is apparent in the tagline “Not Even Once” that appears in most of the campaign’s visual advertisements, implying that even a single “experimental” use of meth is sufficient to lead users to degraded lives like those depicted in the ads. By attempting to increase perceived severity and perceived susceptibility, the campaign aims to influence its audience to choose not to use meth, assuming that this choice is made through the HBM’s rational cost/benefit decision making process at the individual level.
However, the HBM fails to account for social and environmental factors that influence individual decision making, and the MMP campaign is no exception. When applied to such wide-scale problems as that of meth in Montana, public health interventions benefit from using community-level approaches that transcend the individual level and incorporate theories that address social and environmental factors (10). One such theory that would be relevant to the MMP’s target population is peer cluster theory, which incorporates both individual psychological and social factors in decision making. According to peer cluster theory, initiation and maintenance of drug use among adolescents is almost entirely a function of peer clusters—small groups of people including “gangs”, best-friend dyads, and couples—and other factors take a backseat to the influence from these groups (11). Therefore public health interventions aimed at youth would benefit from addressing these group-level dynamics in youths’ decisions regarding drug use. Instead the MMP campaign attempts to influence youth at the individual level, with the hope that enough individuals will be swayed by its message to lead to community-level change, thereby influencing decisions at the group level as well. However, as discussed further below, even at the individual level the campaign is only marginally effective at best, due to flaws in its marketing approach.
Critique 2 – Lack of Effective Branding and Marketing Techniques
The MMP campaign attempts to “sell” a meth-free lifestyle by depicting the opposite, as illustrated by the numerous ads showing meth users in frightening and disturbing situations. By using this approach, the campaign ignores a considerable literature demonstrating that scary, graphic public health campaigns are frequently ineffective and sometimes harmful (12) (13) (14), and the campaign fails to incorporate basic principles of research-based marketing and the “promise” of a desirable value proposition in its branding.
The MMP campaign’s approach illustrates a common problem with the traditional paradigm for developing public health campaigns: messaging is developed through an intuitive process, as campaigners identify a “product” that they think the target audience should want and develop their campaign to “sell” that product (15), (16). This stands in stark contrast to the more effective research-based methods used in most commercial marketing campaigns, in which data is gathered to identify which “products” people actually want, and campaigns are developed to appeal to the needs and wants identified by research (15). In addition, for long-term campaigns like that of the MMP, branded messages are most appropriate (17), and although the campaign makes an attempt at branding with its tagline “Not Even Once”, it fails to follow the basic rule that successful branding must offer a “promise” or value proposition that induces the target market to desire the product being sold (17).
Critique 3 –Inducement of Psychological Reactance
Psychological reactance is a phenomenon in which an attempt to use social influence backfires because the attempted influence is perceived as a threat to a person’s freedom and the person experiences a motivational state aimed at restoring the threatened freedom (18). A person goes through 4 basic steps in this process of psychological reactance: 1) perception of certain freedoms, 2) perception of a threat to one or more of these freedoms, 3) experience of psychological reactance in order to achieve 4) restoration of the threatened freedom(s).
Psychological reactance is more likely to occur when the source of the message is perceived as not being credible, or as different from the recipient of the message (18). The MMP’s campaign displays these characteristics, making it likely to generate psychological reactance in its target audience. The MMP’s own research illustrates that 40-50% of teens think the campaign’s ads exaggerate the risks of using meth (8), indicating that they do not perceive the source of the message as credible. In addition, the campaign’s use of unusually graphic situations and extremely negative depictions of meth users increases the likelihood that viewers will disidentify with the characters portrayed in the ads, seeing the characters as “different from me” and therefore more likely to generate psychological reactance in response to the message they are promoting. Therefore the overall effect on some viewers would be an impression that the campaign is an attempt by an untrustworthy source to exert social influence in a freedom-limiting manner, leading viewers to discount the campaign’s message and in some cases to adopt beliefs and take actions in direct opposition to those intended by the campaign.
Proposed Alternative Intervention: The97 Campaign
Rather than trying to scare youth into avoiding meth use, the MMP should develop a campaign offering an aspirational “promise” of something that Montana youth actually want. The campaign should incorporate theory that addresses group-level influences on youth choices about drug use, and it should be designed to minimize psychological reactance.
A campaign incorporating these elements could be modeled after the The84 campaign, which was recently launched in Massachusetts to combat teen smoking (19) (20). This campaign leverages group-level dynamics by aiming to impact social norms, promoting the message that 84% of young people in Massachusetts choose not to smoke and offering an aspirational “promise” by associating a smoke-free lifestyle with fun, positive activities, and social connection. The84 campaign also leverages the power of social networks and peer clusters by involving youth in developing its message and promoting its activities, minimizing the potential for psychological reactance because its message is delivered in a non-controlling manner by people similar to its target audience and likely to be perceived as relevant and credible.
Following the approach used by The84, a “The97” campaign could be developed to combat Montana youth meth use by spreading the message that 97% of Montana youth choose not to use meth (21) and offering the “promise” of being part of a group with an aspirational meth-free lifestyle that involves fun, positive activities, and social connection. The campaign’s activities and messages would be developed with involvement from Montana youth, and would be delivered through the same media used by the current MMP campaign (television, print media and billboards, etc.) as well as a website designed to leverage social networks and create a link between online and in-person activities for youth interested in fighting meth use.
The97 would offer ways for youth to become involved, leveraging the power of social networks and creating a self-reinforcing system that benefits from the effects of human conformity and group-level influences on decision making. By calling attention to the fact that the vast majority of Montana youth (97%) don’t use meth and by recruiting peers from the target population to develop and promote its message, the campaign would leverage the powers of social influence on human behavior.
The campaign would also leverage the use of effective branding techniques to establish a brand identity associated with its aspirational promise of a positive, desirable meth-free lifestyle, using input from the target population to develop and refine its message to ensure that the “product” and “promise” offered in its messaging are things that youth actually want.
The97 would also minimize the potential for psychological reactance to its message by being explicit about the source of its message, ensuring that its message’s source is as similar to the audience as possible, minimizing any sense of an attempt to control the audience, and giving support/ justification for the campaign’s message (18).
Defense 1 – Impacts Group-Level Factors in Decision Making
The proposed intervention addresses the limitations of the Health Belief Model by addressing environmental and social factors in youth decision making and aiming to impact social norms. This approach recognizes that decisions are largely influenced by forces that transcend the individual, instead of assuming that decisions are limited to a rational, individual-level cost/ benefit analysis as the Health Belief Model does.
By offering ways for youth to become involved and by leveraging the power of social networks, this intervention creates a self-reinforcing system that benefits from the effects of human conformity and “herd” behavior. People take cues from the perceived opinions and actions of others and have a tendency to follow the crowd, as illustrated by the fact that federal judges on 3-judge panels are influenced by the votes of their colleagues (22), that financial analysts frequently choose to ignore information from their own research and simply mimic the actions of others (23), and that teenage girls who see that other teenagers are having children are more likely to become pregnant themselves (22). These principles of social influence and conformity are also illustrated by the peer cluster model, which proposes that the initiation and maintenance of drug use among adolescents is almost entirely a function of peer clusters—small groups of people including “gangs”, best-friend dyads, and couples—and that the influence exerted by these peer groups generally supersedes other factors (11). By calling attention to the fact that the vast majority of Montana youth (97%) don’t use meth and by recruiting peers from the target population to develop and promote its message, the proposed intervention leverages these group-level effects, thereby vastly increasing its likelihood of success.
Defense 2 – Offers a Desirable Product and “Promise”
The proposed intervention addresses some of the problems with the marketing approach of the current MMP campaign—by using effective branding techniques, promoting a “product” that the target audience actually wants, and offering the “promise” of an aspirational, meth-free lifestyle.
The “The97” campaign would use effective branding techniques to establish a brand identity associated with the aspirational promise of a positive, desirable meth-free lifestyle. Branded messages are most appropriate for interventions with long-term strategic goals like that of reducing Montana youth meth use, because over time there is a dynamic interaction between consumers’ expectations and associations with a brand and the brand’s identity (17). In order to be effective, a brand must establish an identity, position itself relative to competitors (in this case other groups or activities that youth might consider), offer a value proposition that tells consumers why they should choose its product, develop communications that are relevant to the target audience, and offer verbal/ visual cues that support the brand’s identity and message (17). The97 would employ these techniques in establishing its brand.
The “The97” campaign would use also input from the target population to develop and refine its message, in order to ensure that the “product” and “promise” that it offers are things that youth actually want. Effective marketing campaigns use research to develop their messages: data is gathered to identify which “products” people actually want, and messages are developed to appeal to these research-identified needs and wants (15). “The97” would gather and use this data to develop and refine its association with an aspirational meth-free lifestyle involving fun, positive activities, and social connection.
Defense 3 – Minimizes Psychological Reactance
The proposed intervention is designed to minimize psychological reactance, addressing one of the problems with the current MMP campaign. There are several effective means for reducing the potential for psychological reactance to a message, including: being explicit about the source of the message, making the source as similar to the audience as possible, minimizing any sense of an attempt to control the audience, and giving support/ justification for the message (18).
The proposed intervention would use members of the target audience (with diversity reflecting that of Montana’s youth) to develop and deliver the campaign’s message, thereby making the source of the message as similar as possible to the intended recipient. The source of The97’s message would be made explicit in its delivery, by using members of the target audience to deliver the message. Some of the ads could even include an explicit statement regarding the similarity between the campaign’s members and its audience (e.g. “We’re made up of young people who love living life and having fun, just like you”). The campaign would also minimize any sense of trying to dominate or control its audience by simply presenting the aspirational promise of being part of a group of happy, socially connected people without trying to tell anyone that they should be part of this group (or by obviously trying to scare youth into acting a certain way, as the current MMP campaign does). Finally, the campaign would offer strong support for its message by appealing to both rational individual-level analyses and irrational group-level herd and crowding behavior, by integrating information regarding the negative effects of meth into its messaging (individual-level) while presenting the positive, aspirational alternative of a meth-free lifestyle involving fun and social connectedness.
Conclusion
The MMP campaign’s worthwhile goal of reducing teen meth use is unfortunately undermined by flaws in the campaign’s approach. The campaign suffers from its use of the Health Belief Model, its lack of effective marketing and branding techniques, and its tendency to induce psychological reactance in the teens it is trying to influence. An improved approach would incorporate 1) group-level behavioral models such as social networking and peer cluster theory, 2) proven marketing and branding techniques including the “promise” of a desirable meth-free lifestyle, and 3) techniques designed to minimize psychological reactance, including the use of non-authoritative spokespersons who are as similar as possible to the teens the campaign is trying to reach.
REFERENCES
1. Office of National Drug Control Policy. Pushing Back Against Meth: A Progress Report on the Fight Against Methamphetamine in the United States. November 2006.
2. Montana Attorney General, Mike McGrath. Methamphetamine in Montana: A Follow-up Report on Trends and Progress. April 2008.
3. Montana Meth Project. Montana Meth Project - View Ads. Montana Meth Project. [Online] 2009. [Cited: December 4, 2009.] http://www.montanameth.org/View_Ads/.
4. About Us - Montana Meth Project. MontanaMeth.org. [Online] 2009. [Cited: December 2, 2009.] http://www.montanameth.org/About_Us/index.php.
5. Montana Office of Public Instruction. 2009 Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey. June 2009.
6. Drugs, Money, and Graphic Ads: A Critical Review of the Montana Meth Project. Erceg-Hurn, David M. 4, Crawley,WA, Australia : Springer Netherlands, December 2008, Vol. 9. 1573-6695.
7. Senate Finance Committee. Before the Senate Finance Committee: Statement of Thomas M. Siebel. 2007. Retrieved from http://finance.senate.gov/hearings/testimony/2007test/091807testts.pdf.
8. Montana Meth Project. 2006 Montana Meth use & attitudes survey. Montana Meth Project. [Online] 2006. [Cited: December 4, 2009.] http://www.montanameth.org/documents/MMP_Survey_April_2006.pdf.
9. McGrath, M. Methamphetamine in Montana: A preliminary report on trends and impacts. 2007. Retrieved from: http://www.montanameth.org/documents/MT_AG_Report_Final.pdf.
10. Crosby, RA, Kegler, MC and DiClemente, RJ. Understanding and applying theory in health promotion practice and research (Chapter 1). Emerging Theories in Health Promotion Practice and Research: Strategies for Improving Public Health. San Francisco, CA : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002, pp. 6-7.
11. Oetting, ER and Beauvis, F. Common Elements in Youth Drug Abuse: Peer Clusters and Other Psychosocial Factors. [book auth.] Stanton Peele. Visions of addiction: major contemporary perspectives on addiction and alcoholism. s.l. : Lexington Books, 1988, pp. 141-161.
12. Ringold, DJ. Boomerang effects in response to public health interventions: Some unintended consequences in the alcoholic beverage market. Journal of Consumer Policy. 2002, Vol. 25, pp. 27-63.
13. Ruiter, R, Abraham, C and Kok, G. Scary warnings and rational precautions: A review of the psychology of fear appeals. Psychology and Health. 2001, Vol. 16, pp. 613-630.
14. Witte, K and Allan, M. A meta-analysis of fear appeals: Implications for effective public health campaigns. Health Education and Behavior. 2000, Vol. 27, pp. 591-615.
15. Siegel, M. Marketing public health - An opportunity for the public health practitioner (Chapter 6). [book auth.] M Siegel and L Doner. Marketing Public Health: Strategies to Promote Social Change (2nd Edition). Sudbury, MA : Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2007, pp. 127-152.
16. Siegel, M. Lecture at Boston University School of Public Health, Course SB721: Social and Behavioral Sciences for Public Health. [Lecture]. Boston, MA : s.n., October 22, 2009.
17. Blitstein JL, Evans WD, Driscoll DL. What is a public health brand (Chapter 2). Public Health Branding: Applying Marketing for Social Change. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 25-41.
18. Silvia, PJ. Deflecting reactance: The role of similarity in increasing compliance and reducing resistance. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 2005, Vol. 27, pp. 277-284.
19. Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. Check Us Out - The 84. The 84 - It's not just a number, it's who you are. [Online] 2007. [Cited: December 2, 2009.] http://www.the84.org/check-us-out.
20. Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Annual Report of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. Mass.gov. [Online] Fiscal Year 2008. [Cited: December 2, 2009.] http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dph/tobacco_control/annual_report_2008.rtf.
21. Montana Office of Public Instruction. 2009 Montana Youth Risk Behavior Survey. MontanaMeth.org. [Online] 2009. [Cited: December 3, 2009.] http://www.montanameth.org/documents/2009 Montana YRBS.pdf.
2. Thaler, RH. Following the Herd (Chapter 3). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 2008, p. 55.
23. Sornette, D. "Herd" Behavior and "Crowd" Effect and Forces of Imitation (section of Chapter 4). Why Stock Markets Crash: Critical Events in Complex Financial Systems. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 2003, p. 95.
24. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Research Report Series - Methamphetamine Abuse and Addiction. NIDA. [Online] July 22, 2008. [Cited: 12 4, 2009.] http://www.drugabuse.gov/ResearchReports/methamph/methamph2.html#scope.
The Montana Meth Project (MMP) was launched in 2005 in response to the significant toll being exacted on the state by methamphetamine (meth), an extremely addictive synthetic stimulant drug. In 2005, Montana ranked 5th in the nation for meth abuse (1), 50% of inmates were incarcerated for meth (2), and 50% of foster-care admissions were meth-related (2).
MMP’s campaign consists primarily of a series of advertisements depicting young meth users in graphic, extremely disturbing situations. The young meth users are portrayed as violent, treacherous, unhygienic, and manipulative. They are depicted attacking and stealing from family members, being raped, prostituting themselves, and visualizing themselves being violently mugged or paralyzed by a car accident and wishing these terrible things had happened to prevent them from trying meth for the first time (3).
According to the MMP website, the campaign has been a resounding success. MMP characterizes the campaign as a “research-validated” approach that reaches 70-90% of Montana youth age 12-17 on a weekly basis (4), and claims that the campaign has led to a reduction in Montana’s ranking from 5th to 39th in the nation for meth abuse (1), a 63% reduction in teen meth use (5), a 72% reduction in adult meth use (2), and a 62% reduction in meth-related crime (2).
However, most of MMP’s claims regarding the campaign’s success do not hold up under closer examination (6). Despite claims that the campaign is “research-based” and has been refined as a result of MMP’s surveys (7), the campaign has remained essentially the same since its inception, even though MMP’s data has shown that many teens believe the ads exaggerate the effects of meth use (8) and that there has been an increase in the perceived acceptability of methamphetamine use and a decrease in the perceived dangers of drug use following the campaign’s introduction (6). In addition, the internal validity of the MMP’s research is compromised by its use of a pre-experimental design, lacking an adequate control group from baseline and therefore making it impossible to draw the conclusion that any changes in use or attitudes toward meth have been caused by the campaign. Meth use was already declining in the 6 years prior to the campaign’s introduction (6), and other factors were at work during the same time period as the campaign—including the legal restrictions placed on sales of over-the-counter medications commonly used in the manufacture of meth in 2005 (9). These factors make it impossible to rely on the conclusion that any observed decreases in meth use were in fact caused by the MMP campaign.
In addition to the flaws in the MMP’s research design and its claims of success, there are significant flaws in the campaign’s conceptual design because it ignores several aspects of current knowledge and research regarding social psychology and marketing. First, the campaign uses principles of the Health Belief Model, assuming that its intended audience will use a rational cost/ benefit decision-making process in deciding whether or not to use meth. Second, the campaign attempts to “sell” its “product”—a meth-free lifestyle—by depicting the opposite, using extremely negative imagery and scare tactics instead of depicting something that its target audience actually wants. Finally, as reflected by survey results including some of MMP’s own research, the campaign’s approach is apt to generate psychological reactance in its target audience, i.e. the teens and young adults at whom the campaign is directed perceive its message as an attempt by an untrusted source to exert social influence in a freedom-limiting manner, leading the target audience to discount the campaign’s message and in some cases to adopt beliefs in direct opposition to those intended by the campaign.
Critique 1 – Assumed Rational Decision Making: The Health Belief Model
The Health Belief Model (HBM) assumes that people use a rational cost/ benefit analysis when making decisions that impact their health. The HBM assumes four basic psychological elements that impact decisions: 1) perceived susceptibility, 2) perceived severity, 3) perceived benefits, and 4) perceived barriers. Interventions based on the HBM attempt to impact one or more of these four elements in order to achieve the desired effect. In the case of the MMP, the campaign attempts primarily to increase its target audience’s perceived severity of the consequences from using meth, as well as the perceived susceptibility to becoming addicted to meth. The campaign’s attempt to influence perceived severity can easily be seen in its graphic depiction of meth users in a series of extreme and disturbing situations, and the attempt to influence perceived susceptibility is apparent in the tagline “Not Even Once” that appears in most of the campaign’s visual advertisements, implying that even a single “experimental” use of meth is sufficient to lead users to degraded lives like those depicted in the ads. By attempting to increase perceived severity and perceived susceptibility, the campaign aims to influence its audience to choose not to use meth, assuming that this choice is made through the HBM’s rational cost/benefit decision making process at the individual level.
However, the HBM fails to account for social and environmental factors that influence individual decision making, and the MMP campaign is no exception. When applied to such wide-scale problems as that of meth in Montana, public health interventions benefit from using community-level approaches that transcend the individual level and incorporate theories that address social and environmental factors (10). One such theory that would be relevant to the MMP’s target population is peer cluster theory, which incorporates both individual psychological and social factors in decision making. According to peer cluster theory, initiation and maintenance of drug use among adolescents is almost entirely a function of peer clusters—small groups of people including “gangs”, best-friend dyads, and couples—and other factors take a backseat to the influence from these groups (11). Therefore public health interventions aimed at youth would benefit from addressing these group-level dynamics in youths’ decisions regarding drug use. Instead the MMP campaign attempts to influence youth at the individual level, with the hope that enough individuals will be swayed by its message to lead to community-level change, thereby influencing decisions at the group level as well. However, as discussed further below, even at the individual level the campaign is only marginally effective at best, due to flaws in its marketing approach.
Critique 2 – Lack of Effective Branding and Marketing Techniques
The MMP campaign attempts to “sell” a meth-free lifestyle by depicting the opposite, as illustrated by the numerous ads showing meth users in frightening and disturbing situations. By using this approach, the campaign ignores a considerable literature demonstrating that scary, graphic public health campaigns are frequently ineffective and sometimes harmful (12) (13) (14), and the campaign fails to incorporate basic principles of research-based marketing and the “promise” of a desirable value proposition in its branding.
The MMP campaign’s approach illustrates a common problem with the traditional paradigm for developing public health campaigns: messaging is developed through an intuitive process, as campaigners identify a “product” that they think the target audience should want and develop their campaign to “sell” that product (15), (16). This stands in stark contrast to the more effective research-based methods used in most commercial marketing campaigns, in which data is gathered to identify which “products” people actually want, and campaigns are developed to appeal to the needs and wants identified by research (15). In addition, for long-term campaigns like that of the MMP, branded messages are most appropriate (17), and although the campaign makes an attempt at branding with its tagline “Not Even Once”, it fails to follow the basic rule that successful branding must offer a “promise” or value proposition that induces the target market to desire the product being sold (17).
Critique 3 –Inducement of Psychological Reactance
Psychological reactance is a phenomenon in which an attempt to use social influence backfires because the attempted influence is perceived as a threat to a person’s freedom and the person experiences a motivational state aimed at restoring the threatened freedom (18). A person goes through 4 basic steps in this process of psychological reactance: 1) perception of certain freedoms, 2) perception of a threat to one or more of these freedoms, 3) experience of psychological reactance in order to achieve 4) restoration of the threatened freedom(s).
Psychological reactance is more likely to occur when the source of the message is perceived as not being credible, or as different from the recipient of the message (18). The MMP’s campaign displays these characteristics, making it likely to generate psychological reactance in its target audience. The MMP’s own research illustrates that 40-50% of teens think the campaign’s ads exaggerate the risks of using meth (8), indicating that they do not perceive the source of the message as credible. In addition, the campaign’s use of unusually graphic situations and extremely negative depictions of meth users increases the likelihood that viewers will disidentify with the characters portrayed in the ads, seeing the characters as “different from me” and therefore more likely to generate psychological reactance in response to the message they are promoting. Therefore the overall effect on some viewers would be an impression that the campaign is an attempt by an untrustworthy source to exert social influence in a freedom-limiting manner, leading viewers to discount the campaign’s message and in some cases to adopt beliefs and take actions in direct opposition to those intended by the campaign.
Proposed Alternative Intervention: The97 Campaign
Rather than trying to scare youth into avoiding meth use, the MMP should develop a campaign offering an aspirational “promise” of something that Montana youth actually want. The campaign should incorporate theory that addresses group-level influences on youth choices about drug use, and it should be designed to minimize psychological reactance.
A campaign incorporating these elements could be modeled after the The84 campaign, which was recently launched in Massachusetts to combat teen smoking (19) (20). This campaign leverages group-level dynamics by aiming to impact social norms, promoting the message that 84% of young people in Massachusetts choose not to smoke and offering an aspirational “promise” by associating a smoke-free lifestyle with fun, positive activities, and social connection. The84 campaign also leverages the power of social networks and peer clusters by involving youth in developing its message and promoting its activities, minimizing the potential for psychological reactance because its message is delivered in a non-controlling manner by people similar to its target audience and likely to be perceived as relevant and credible.
Following the approach used by The84, a “The97” campaign could be developed to combat Montana youth meth use by spreading the message that 97% of Montana youth choose not to use meth (21) and offering the “promise” of being part of a group with an aspirational meth-free lifestyle that involves fun, positive activities, and social connection. The campaign’s activities and messages would be developed with involvement from Montana youth, and would be delivered through the same media used by the current MMP campaign (television, print media and billboards, etc.) as well as a website designed to leverage social networks and create a link between online and in-person activities for youth interested in fighting meth use.
The97 would offer ways for youth to become involved, leveraging the power of social networks and creating a self-reinforcing system that benefits from the effects of human conformity and group-level influences on decision making. By calling attention to the fact that the vast majority of Montana youth (97%) don’t use meth and by recruiting peers from the target population to develop and promote its message, the campaign would leverage the powers of social influence on human behavior.
The campaign would also leverage the use of effective branding techniques to establish a brand identity associated with its aspirational promise of a positive, desirable meth-free lifestyle, using input from the target population to develop and refine its message to ensure that the “product” and “promise” offered in its messaging are things that youth actually want.
The97 would also minimize the potential for psychological reactance to its message by being explicit about the source of its message, ensuring that its message’s source is as similar to the audience as possible, minimizing any sense of an attempt to control the audience, and giving support/ justification for the campaign’s message (18).
Defense 1 – Impacts Group-Level Factors in Decision Making
The proposed intervention addresses the limitations of the Health Belief Model by addressing environmental and social factors in youth decision making and aiming to impact social norms. This approach recognizes that decisions are largely influenced by forces that transcend the individual, instead of assuming that decisions are limited to a rational, individual-level cost/ benefit analysis as the Health Belief Model does.
By offering ways for youth to become involved and by leveraging the power of social networks, this intervention creates a self-reinforcing system that benefits from the effects of human conformity and “herd” behavior. People take cues from the perceived opinions and actions of others and have a tendency to follow the crowd, as illustrated by the fact that federal judges on 3-judge panels are influenced by the votes of their colleagues (22), that financial analysts frequently choose to ignore information from their own research and simply mimic the actions of others (23), and that teenage girls who see that other teenagers are having children are more likely to become pregnant themselves (22). These principles of social influence and conformity are also illustrated by the peer cluster model, which proposes that the initiation and maintenance of drug use among adolescents is almost entirely a function of peer clusters—small groups of people including “gangs”, best-friend dyads, and couples—and that the influence exerted by these peer groups generally supersedes other factors (11). By calling attention to the fact that the vast majority of Montana youth (97%) don’t use meth and by recruiting peers from the target population to develop and promote its message, the proposed intervention leverages these group-level effects, thereby vastly increasing its likelihood of success.
Defense 2 – Offers a Desirable Product and “Promise”
The proposed intervention addresses some of the problems with the marketing approach of the current MMP campaign—by using effective branding techniques, promoting a “product” that the target audience actually wants, and offering the “promise” of an aspirational, meth-free lifestyle.
The “The97” campaign would use effective branding techniques to establish a brand identity associated with the aspirational promise of a positive, desirable meth-free lifestyle. Branded messages are most appropriate for interventions with long-term strategic goals like that of reducing Montana youth meth use, because over time there is a dynamic interaction between consumers’ expectations and associations with a brand and the brand’s identity (17). In order to be effective, a brand must establish an identity, position itself relative to competitors (in this case other groups or activities that youth might consider), offer a value proposition that tells consumers why they should choose its product, develop communications that are relevant to the target audience, and offer verbal/ visual cues that support the brand’s identity and message (17). The97 would employ these techniques in establishing its brand.
The “The97” campaign would use also input from the target population to develop and refine its message, in order to ensure that the “product” and “promise” that it offers are things that youth actually want. Effective marketing campaigns use research to develop their messages: data is gathered to identify which “products” people actually want, and messages are developed to appeal to these research-identified needs and wants (15). “The97” would gather and use this data to develop and refine its association with an aspirational meth-free lifestyle involving fun, positive activities, and social connection.
Defense 3 – Minimizes Psychological Reactance
The proposed intervention is designed to minimize psychological reactance, addressing one of the problems with the current MMP campaign. There are several effective means for reducing the potential for psychological reactance to a message, including: being explicit about the source of the message, making the source as similar to the audience as possible, minimizing any sense of an attempt to control the audience, and giving support/ justification for the message (18).
The proposed intervention would use members of the target audience (with diversity reflecting that of Montana’s youth) to develop and deliver the campaign’s message, thereby making the source of the message as similar as possible to the intended recipient. The source of The97’s message would be made explicit in its delivery, by using members of the target audience to deliver the message. Some of the ads could even include an explicit statement regarding the similarity between the campaign’s members and its audience (e.g. “We’re made up of young people who love living life and having fun, just like you”). The campaign would also minimize any sense of trying to dominate or control its audience by simply presenting the aspirational promise of being part of a group of happy, socially connected people without trying to tell anyone that they should be part of this group (or by obviously trying to scare youth into acting a certain way, as the current MMP campaign does). Finally, the campaign would offer strong support for its message by appealing to both rational individual-level analyses and irrational group-level herd and crowding behavior, by integrating information regarding the negative effects of meth into its messaging (individual-level) while presenting the positive, aspirational alternative of a meth-free lifestyle involving fun and social connectedness.
Conclusion
The MMP campaign’s worthwhile goal of reducing teen meth use is unfortunately undermined by flaws in the campaign’s approach. The campaign suffers from its use of the Health Belief Model, its lack of effective marketing and branding techniques, and its tendency to induce psychological reactance in the teens it is trying to influence. An improved approach would incorporate 1) group-level behavioral models such as social networking and peer cluster theory, 2) proven marketing and branding techniques including the “promise” of a desirable meth-free lifestyle, and 3) techniques designed to minimize psychological reactance, including the use of non-authoritative spokespersons who are as similar as possible to the teens the campaign is trying to reach.
REFERENCES
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