Creating Effective Public Health Campaign: An Experimental Study of Anti-Vaping Social Advertising with Different Message Sources and Vocabulary

In recent years, electronic cigarettes (vapes) have become increasingly popular, particularly among young people (Dai & Leventhal, 2019). Although there has been a significant amount of research on public service advertisements (PSAs) for smoking prevention, there is still a shortage of research investigating the types of message sources used in anti-vaping PSAs and their impact on attitudes towards vaping, as well as the lack of scientific data on this concerning social issue as e-cigarette smoking, especially within the context of Russia. Thus, during the study, we analyzed one of the most significant characteristics of health messages — the message source, which will be examined in terms of the expertise of the source (a medical doctor) and the similarity of the source with respect to the target audience (an ordinary vaper), which differ in presenting information. Considering the relative lack of research examining language formation in relation to the role of social advertising on individuals' attitudes and behavior, another aspect of this study would be the implementation of different types of vocabulary in PSA messages. These message characteristics were divided into two categories: similar-based and not similar-based vocabulary. Similar-based vocabulary referred to the use of words or phrases commonly found in vaping-related posts on social media, while not similar vocabulary referred to a message without these words, which were used for PSA creation to analyze their impact. Therefore, the current study aimed to fill the mentioned scientific gaps, address the limitations of previous studies, and assess both the type of expert (medical doctor) and similar (ordinary vape user) message sources, as well as the types of similar-based and not similar-based vocabulary. Moreover, it investigated which combination of these anti-vaping PSA message features were the most effective in changing attitudes towards vaping and the vaping intentions. For that purpose, the following research questions were posed: RQ1: Which message source characteristic — expertise or similarity (expert vs. ordinary vape user) — will (a) induce higher perceived credibility of the anti-vaping PSA; (b) be more effective in changing attitudes towards vaping; (c) be more effective in changing vaping intentions? RQ2: Which message vocabulary — similar-based or not similar-based — will (a) induce higher perceived credibility of the anti-vaping PSA; (b) be more effective in changing attitudes towards vaping; (c) be more effective in changing vaping intentions? The research had a 2x2 factorial between-subjects experimental design. The sample was recruited through a paid-panel company Anketolog, and consisted of 300-400 vaping adults over 18 years old. The quantitative data collected via online-survey, exposing respondents to different randomly assigned combinations of message sources and vocabulary in the PSA, and then asking them to self-evaluate their attitude towards vaping and the vaping intention. Afterwards, it was analyzed using Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) in R. In conclusion, while the study did not find significant effects of message source and vocabulary on PSA effectiveness, it highlighted the importance of overall message quality and vocabulary similarity in shaping attitudes and intentions towards reducing vaping. The findings provide valuable insights for the design and implementation of effective public service announcements and set the stage for future research in this area.