Author(s): Ramasundaram G, Aiswarya B, Ajit S and Sunil Vakayil
Smoking is one of the causes of death every year in the world. Smoking causes health problems to both smokers and passive smokers. Curbing the habit of smoking by individuals is one of the many measures every government is keen on undertaking. Many governments are using public service announcements with the anti-smoking message to create awareness about the ill effects of smoking and making the smoker quit smoking. The success of these public service announcements is debatable. This study tries to understand whether cinema halls can be used as a medium for targeted advertising of anti-smoking messages. This study attempts to estimate the effectiveness of anti-smoking advertisements shown in cinema halls in three cities in India. Effectiveness is studied in terms of the respondents following the preferred behavior for which the advertisement is created. Structural Equation Modelling is used to study behavioral change, considering attitude toward advertisements and the consequences of smoking as the influencing variables. It is found from the study that the anti-smoking advertisements showing the impact of smoking influence the decision of smokers to quit smoking.