Contents
Introduction…………….……………….…………………….……………………….….……….2
Case Study: Actions taken by World Wildlife Fund-Singapore…………………..………….4
2.1.1 Use of Humour and Loss/Gain Framing through Durex’s Campaign
2.1.2 Use of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Cast for Celebrity Endorsement
New Area: Underage Smoking in Singapore…………..…………………………..…………..6
Overview of Strategies………………………………………………………………….………….7
4.1 Cig-away Awareness Media………….…………..………………………….……………………….8
4.1.1 Advertising films
4.1.2 Memes
4.1.3 Cig-Away Roadshow
4.1.3.1 The Life of an Underaged smoker
4.1.3.2 Truth Brought to Light
4.1.3.3 Lights, Camera, Action!
4.2 LightUP!.……………………………………………………………….……………………………23
Conclusion…………………………….…………………….………………….………..……….26
References.……………………………………………………………………………..……….27
Annex..……………………………………………………………………………………………..31
1. Introduction
This report aims to study how World Wildlife Fund has encouraged more Singaporeans to participate in Earth Hour 2014, where participation rates increased from 183 organisations in 2013 to over 350 in 2014 (WWF, 2014). Using the lessons learnt from the advertisement campaigns, we aim to decrease the percentage of smokers aged between 13-17 from 6% (WHO, 2017) to 1% by 2021.This can be done by advertising the adverse effects of smoking amongst teenagers whilst guiding those who are smoking to quit. We will be making use of films, memes and a roadshow as a form of advertising, while using a website to help the underage smokers quit.
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2. Case Study: World Wildlife Fund-Singapore (WWF)
WWF, the leading organisation for wildlife conservation, collaborated with the cast of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ and Durex to encourage participation rates for Earth Hour. It was successful as the number of organisations participating went up from 183 in 2013 to 350 in 2014 (WWF, 2014). The strategies and courses of action taken are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of WWF-Singapore’s Strategies
2.1 Actions taken by WWF
2.1.1 Use of Humour and Loss/Gain Framing through Durex’s Campaign:
Durex’s “Turn Off to Turn On” campaign employs films to promote participation in Earth Hour. The campaign shows how the obsession with electrical devices can negatively impact relationships by making use of gain framing which focuses on the positive outcomes, and loss framing on the losses of a certain behaviour (Meier, 2018). This engages viewers to turn off their devices and participate (Tversky, 1981). The use of short taglines at the end of the videos and sexual humour was also effective as they made it easy to recall (Hemani, 2012), whilst convincing them about the importance of Earth Hour 2014 .
Thus, we should utilise humour in our advertisements as people will pay more attention to humorous commercials (Victoria, 2017). We should also make use of gain and loss framing in our strategies as it persuades viewers to abstain from a behaviour like smoking (Toll Et Al., 2007).
2.1.2 Use of Celebrity Endorsement:
The event was endorsed by the cast of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, which includes celebrities like Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield, who believe in the need to conserve the environment and participate in Earth Hour (Earth Hour, 2014). Celebrity presence at an event encourages their fans to support (Muda, 2012) and bring attention to it (TheCelebritySource, 2014) which increases participation (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Huge turnout at Earth Hour 2014 with the “Amazing Spider-Man 2” Cast
3.0 New Area: Underage Smoking in Singapore
Our Target Audience is underage smokers in Singapore between the age of 13-17. They are easily influenced by peers, beginning to respond to media messages (Huberman, 2016) and struggle to manage stress properly. Singapore has seen an increase in the prevalence of smoking from 12.3% in 2004 to 14.3% in 2010 (Lee, 2013). Smokers will suffer adverse effects, including increased financial burden and greater risks of having health problems like lung cancer (WHO, 2012). Existing measures such as increasing the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 by 2021 have failed to decrease the number of underage smokers (Yong, 2015). Therefore, more should be done to create awareness and alleviate this worsening issue (Ng and Abraham, 2017).
The three root causes of underage smoking are: youhts are intrigued by the cool portrayal of smoking by mainstream media (Healthhub, 2017), smoking is used as a tool to alleviate stress (Subramaniam et al, 2015) and many of these smokers have succumbed to negative peer pressure (Healthhub, 2017).
4.0 Overview of Strategies
We introduce the ‘Cig-Away!’ Campaign, which is inspired by our case study, to resolve the root causes of underage smoking in Singapore. (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Conceptual framework
4.1 Cig-away Awareness Media
Strategy 1 uses a film, memes and a roadshow. The film works together with memes to advertise the roadshow which promotes LightUP! , a platform to help underage smokers quit smoking.
4.1.1 Short Film
The film tells underage smokers that smoking is unattractive and it does not relieve stress, whilst showing them how negative peer pressure can lead to poor decision making.
Placement and rationale of advertising film
94.1% of teenagers surveyed watch YouTube videos often and 66.7% view them on weekends, with 85.4% watching between 3pm and 1am (Annex). Hence, the films will be broadcasted through YouTube’s advertising system from 3pm to 1am, or as advertisements before cinema-screened youth-targeted movies, which are 8 times more effective than television advertisements (Degun, 2014). Films will also be posted on social media sites such as Instagram to reach out to more youths since more than 90% of Singaporean youths spend at least an hour on their smartphones surfing the internet (asiaone, 2014)
Content of Advertising Film
Figure 4: Two smokers at a void deck
Figure 5: A “nerd” walks by
Figure 6: The nerd is offered a cigarette by the teenagers
Figure 7: Nerd’s mother appears and scolds him for smoking
Figure 8: Mother continues talking to him
Figure 9: Scene fades with mother saying the tagline and advertising the roadshow
The simple tagline “Smoking is not the solution” effectively reinforces the message of the video (Gendelman, 2014). The smoker’s mother can be played by an actress from Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) a popular local Youtube channel, as they have previously worked with Health Promotion Board, making them more likely to work with us to create the film. Celebrities can attract people’s attention (Gevme, 2016). Thus, films with local influencers can gather more views and the audience will be able to recognise the familiar void deck setting as well as the popular youtubers, making our film more effective.
4.1.2 Memes
Our memes aim to raise awareness about underage smoking whilst publicising the roadshow so that youths will participate.
Rationale of Using Memes
Memes are digital media seeking to entertain its audience. When successful, it can go viral as it is shared rapidly with others (Dawkins, 2015). Memes make use of satirical or surreal humour and are often effective advertisements (McCrae, 2017) in spreading messages among youths due to its informality, which provides entertainment. Youths often share such content with their online friends and this repeated meme-sharing will result in public awareness of the message (Coscia, 2013).
Content of the memes
Figure 10: A meme that can be used to curb smoking in under-aged youths
Succinct taglines, like “Snuff out. Live on”, allow teenagers to remember the message of the advertisement (Hemani, 2012). In Figure 10, the meme has a Sesame Street character that many teenagers can recognise, providing a familiar character for maximum impact (Graf, 2018), but also an alternative situation to communicate its message. The meme employs loss framing by showing the disastrous effects (Tversky, 1981) of Bert smoking, while its comical tone keeps teenagers interested (Strick, 2013). A similar meme of the same format posted by SGAG gained 366 likes and 469 shares online (twitter.com, 2017), showing that such memes are attractive to youths.
Where can these memes be featured?
These memes are uploaded on Instagram, where they are often circulated around (Hueso, 2017) which reaches the youths easily as they browse social media platforms often (asiaone, 2014). Majority of our survey respondents (88.9%) indicated that they like viewing memes and 66.7% of them browse memes frequently.
Evaluation
Although the advertisements may not convince viewers to abstain from smoking, they can persuade viewers to come to our roadshow as they can effectively convey the main messages to the youth. Hence, by using our advertisements together with our roadshow, we can help youths quit smoking.
4.1.3 Cig-Away Roadshow@NEX
The roadshow is a collaboration between Singapore Health Promotion Board and Singapore Anti-Tuberculosis Association (SATA CommHealth). HPB is likely to collaborate with SATA CommHealth, since their mission is to provide healthcare for the community.
Figure 11: Activity plan for roadshow
This roadshow is carried out at NEX mall, a popular place for youths to visit and on weekends (goodyfeed.com,2018). The event is held from 11am to 4pm on weekends and 3pm to 7pm on weekdays, when students end school. The presence of influencers attract people (Zhang, Zhao, Xu, 2016), hence we will invite local influencers from NOC give talks and autographs to the youths at the roadshow to increase publicity. Interactive activities in our activity plan (Figure 11) will encourage active learning, as it is said to be 6 times more effective than traditional learning (Gorman, 2015).
Figure 12: Roadshow will be housed in a Cigarette-shaped structure in the Nex exhibition space
The exhibition is shaped like a cigarette. Its insides are painted with stains to show cigarette contaminants, which scares the youths by making cigarettes seem off-putting (Ray, 2015).
Figure 13: Roadshow layout
Objective and Rationale for Sequence of Layout
The roadshow first displays the life of an underage smoker and the problems faced. Then they are educated on the disadvantages of smoking in the next section. Finally, they hear personal experiences of ex-smokers before seeing the effects of smoking in the photo gallery, which motivates them to quit. At the end, the underage smokers are invited to join the LightUP! Programme to quit smoking.
4.1.3.1 Life Of An Underaged Smoker
To start, participants enter an immersive projection room where they experience the life of an underage smoker in their point of view. It shows how one is influenced by his peers, which causes him to pick up smoking. He will face problems such as breathlessness after walking, which viewers can hear through the immersive sound system. Showing potential problems of one’s actions can discourage one to act on it (Ray, 2015).
4.1.3.2 Truth Brought to Light
This section has an organ exhibition (Figure 14), which includes real organs of smokers and non-smokers.
Figure 14: Sample of on-screen display
There are information boards stating how smoking impacts the health and lifestyle of a teenager (Pietrangelo and Cherney, 2017), like higher risks of lung cancer and the financial burden of smoking, which can cost as much as $1,186.25 a year (Lim, 2017). An audio system will project the constant coughing of a smoker, allowing visitors to hear how disturbing a smoker’s cough is like after smoking. Using fear in health campaigns, like ours, scares non-smokers into avoiding smoking (Witte, Allen, 2000) and smokers to stop (Simpson, 2017) by showing its detriments. Gain framing is employed by showing how much money can be saved (Tversky, 1987). There will be a touch-screen panel that works as a calculator for teenagers to calculate how much they can save if they quit smoking and what they can buy with that amount of money.
Figure 15: Savings Calculator
4.1.3.3 Lights, Camera, Action!
This section features a Photo Gallery and a Documentary Trail. The youths will walk through an alley with screens on the walls playing films featuring ex-smokers. Participants are forced to view the films as they walk to the Photo Gallery. The ex-smokers can be engaged through online ex-smoker community groups such as the I-QUIT Club, an account created by HPB (Facebook.com, 2011). They will share how they picked up smoking when they were underage, and how they gradually regretted that decision. This scares the youths who are in the same situation as the ex-smokers were. Role models set an example for others to follow (Plante, 2014), so these ex-smokers, who are currently leading a smoke-free life, set an example for the youths to follow.
Figure 16: Ex-smoker recounting her experience with smoking
After hearing the accounts from the ex-smokers, people will enter the Photo Gallery.
Figure 17: Photo displays in the photo gallery
The walls will showcase pictures of the detrimental impacts smoking has on your physical appearance in the long-run, such as deteriorated face skin complexion (Figure 17), which the media does not portray. Photo filters from popular social media application (TNS, 2016) Snapchat, can be used to show how these youths will look after smoking for some time. Filters are very compulsive for teens (Marsden, 2018), so they will be attracted to try out the filter and experience first-hand the bad effects of smoking. With reference to the case study, this exhibition makes use of loss framing and scare factors to reform the youth’s perspectives of smoking by exposing the negative effects of smoking that are underplayed by popular culture.
Figure 18: An image that could be used in the Photo Gallery to portray the bad effects of smoking on skin
Evaluation
The roadshow is a short-term strategy. However, some root causes, such as stress, require long-term strategies for it to be resolved. Hence the roadshow may not effectively convince the underage smokers to quit smoking.
4.2 LightUP! Programme
This programme aims to help underage smokers successfully quit smoking by giving incentives as motivation and linking them to the current smoking cessation programme by HPB for professional help.
Rationale for programme
This programme is a follow-up to our roadshow, for smokers who wish to quit smoking afterwards.
Details of Programme
This programme will be held after the roadshow, and will be linked with HPB’s current smoking cessation measure, I-Quit, which has been successful as smoking prevalence amongst youths decreased from 17.2% in 2007 to 12.7% in 2013 (HPB, 2014). These underage smokers will be monitored by HPB counsellors, who will aid them in their situation. The programme will thus be more successful, as the smokers will more likely join since the programme is run by professionals.
This will be introduced to underage smokers at the end of the roadshow, since they will want to quit smoking knowing the detriments of smoking as well as benefits from not. They will approach the HPB counsellor, and will go through a Hair Follicle Nicotine Test, detecting one’s nicotine usage for the past month (DoveMed, 2016) verifying that they are smokers and are eligible to sign up for the website, Lightup.sg. They will be given a one-time PIN code to create an account for the website, where they can create an “unlit” bulb and write down the reason that they want to quit smoking. They will then have to book an appointment with a HPB counsellor to receive counselling and guidance on how to quit smoking. After a month of abstinence, they can book another appointment to get tested again. When they pass the test, the nurses can help to change their bulb from “unlit” to “lit”, signifying that they have achieved progress towards quitting smoking.
The success of some motivates others (Barker, 2014), so as the number of “lit” light bulbs increases, more smokers will be motivated to quit. Nike or Adidas vouchers, which are both popular among youths (McDonald, 2018), will be given as incentives when they have “lit” up their bulb to encourage them to engage in sports activities. To encourage long-term effectiveness, additional vouchers can be given every month after they have lit up their light bulb. With each successive month, the vouchers become increasingly attractive, as the value increases by a fixed amount of $5 each month, starting from $10 Up to 4 vouchers can be claimed as it takes at least 3 months to completely get rid of the thought of smoking (Addictions And Recovery, 2018). Thus, LightUP! is a long-term solution for underage smoking.
Figure 19:Screenshot of the website from a smoker’s account
Incentives such as Fairprice vouchers can be given to parents to encourage them to guide their child to quit smoking, as parents play a vital role in discouraging their children to smoke since they grow up to emulate the behaviour of their parents (HealthHub, 2018). FairPrice supports government’s efforts to reduce tobacco use and youths picking up smoking(Cheong, 2016). Parents are eligible for these vouchers when they sign their child up at the LightUP! Stations at the Cig-Away Roadshow.
Additionally, those who have successfully quit smoking through LightUP! can volunteer to counsel underage smokers currently in the programme. They can better aid them with their similar experiences.
Evaluation
One possible downfall of LightUP! would be that youths might find it a hassle to make appointments with HPB and may not choose to participate in the programme.
5. Conclusion:
With the awareness media and LightUP programme, we can tackle the root causes of underage smoking and reform youths’ mindset towards smoking. Thus, more Singaporean teenagers will abstain from smoking and more underage smokers will quit, having seen its detrimental effects. Through our short-term awareness media and long-term LightUP! Programme, our strategies are sustainable and effective in reducing underage smoking in Singapore.
