Professor Robert Hornik, author of the report, said that his team was expecting to find that the ad campaign worked, but they could find no evidence of that.
"Despite extensive funding, governmental agency support, the employment of professional advertising and public relations firms, and consultation with subject-matter experts, the evidence from the evaluation suggests that the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign had no favorable effects on youths' behavior, and it may even have had an unintended and undesirable effect on drug cognitions and use," Hornik said.
As for marijuana, teens who saw the ads may have come to believe that since so many of their peers were using marijuana, they should use it too.
Congress paid for and mandated the report on the National Youth Anti-Drug Media campaign, which came out of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and was supervised by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. The ads were first used in 1998, and targeted youth ages 12 to 18 through television commercials, websites, movie ads, and other media outlets.
The Annenberg research team polled over 8,000 teenagers in four rounds of interviews. Some of the teens who reported the most exposure to the ads were also more likely to have begun using marijuana.
Spokespeople for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy took issue with the conclusions of the Annenberg report, calling the campaign "a striking success," and noting that drug use among teens has dropped off significantly since 1998.
Posted By: Aspen Education Group