Healthy Living - Methods of Health Promotion - Media Campaigns - Cowpe

Cowpe - Media campaigns - How the media can promote healthy behaviours e.g. TV, radio, adverts, posters, leaflets etc.

Aim: Test effectiveness of an advertising capmpaign about the dangers of chip pan fires.

Method and Procedure: Quasi experiment; TV adverts of how to prevent & put out chip pan fires; TV ads shown in 10 British TV regions; Effectiveness measured by asking viewers in these regions to complete questionnaire about safe use of chip pan fires

Results: Questionnaires showed awareness of preventing and putting out chip pan fires increased from 62% to 96% after the campaign. All regions showed a 12% decrease in number of chip pan fires. If adverts overlapped in areas, it showed the smallest reduction in fires, suggesting seeing the adverts too much reduced their effectiveness. Number of chip pan fires was lowest during the campaign, but figures after the campaign were still lower than they had been before.

Conclusion: Media campaigns can be successful in increasing awareness about chip pan safety and reduce number of chip pan fires. Biggest effect is seen during the campaign, and is less successful if people are over-exposed to them as they become desensitised to its message.