Effectiveness of Anti-Smoking Advertising: The Roles of Message and Media

Abstract

In the last few years, Malaysia government has put in a lot of efforts in order to reduce the number of smokers especially youths in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the numbers of smokers are still increasing according to Global Adult Survey Tobacco (2012). This survey was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-smoking advertising message and media in Malaysia. A questionnaire was used as a research instrument in this survey. The findings showed that the respondents are “neutral” on the anti-smoking advertising messages except for the fear message. One-way ANOVA and independent samples t-test were used to test the hypotheses. The result from independent samples t-test shows there is a real difference between gender and effectiveness of the anti - smoking message. However, the result from one-way ANOVA shows there is no difference between ethnic groups and effectiveness of the anti - smoking message. Besides, the findings also showed that the Internet was the most effective medium to promote anti-smoking advertisements. In future, the comprehensive evaluation of anti-smoking advertising effectiveness in terms of copy, layouts and appeals needs to be studied.