Use of Mass Media Campaigns to Change Health Behaviour - Lancet

"Mass media campaigns are widely used to expose high proportions of large populations to messages through routine uses of existing media, such as television, radio, and newspapers. Exposure to such messages is, therefore, generally passive. Such campaigns are frequently competing with factors, such as pervasive product marketing, powerful social norms, and behaviours driven by addiction or habit."

This journal article reviews the outcomes of mass media campaigns in the context of various health-risk behaviours (e.g., use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, heart disease risk factors, sex-related behaviours, road safety, cancer screening and prevention, child survival, and organ or blood donation). "The great promise of mass media campaigns lies in their ability to disseminate well defined behaviourally focused messages to large audiences repeatedly, over time, in an incidental manner, and at a low cost per head." However, that outcome may not be reached due to, among other factors: inadequate funding; the "increasingly fractured and cluttered media environment"; use of inappropriate or poorly researched format (e.g., boring factual messages or age-inappropriate content); messages being too homogeneous in content for heterogeneous audiences; or messages addressing behaviour changes to an audience who lacks the resources to change. [Footnotes have been removed by the editor.]

Reviewers assessed topic-specific individual studies and more general mass media reviews and concluded: "The likelihood of success is substantially increased by the application of multiple interventions and when the target behaviour is one-off or episodic (e.g., screening, vaccination, children’s aspirin use) rather than habitual or ongoing (e.g., food choices, sun exposure, physical activity). Concurrent availability of and access to key services and products are crucial to persuade individuals motivated by media messages to act on them. The creation of policies that support opportunities to change provides additional motivation for change, whereas policy enforcement can discourage unhealthy or unsafe behaviours. Public relations or media advocacy campaigns that shape the treatment of a public health issue by news and entertainment media also represent a promising complementary strategy to conventional media campaigns.

Various hindrances to the success of mass media campaigns exist. Pervasive marketing for competing products or with opposing messages, the power of social norms, and the drive of addiction frequently mean that positive campaign outcomes are not sustained. Greater and longer-term investment will be required to extend effects. The increasingly fractured and cluttered media environment poses challenges to achieving adequate exposure to planned media messages, rather than making wide exposure easier. Careful planning and testing of campaign content and format with target audiences are, therefore, crucial (panel)"