Objectives: To measure relative effectiveness of tobacco countermarketing advertisements by category and emotive execution style among young adults.
Methods: Participants (n=1011) from 2 US 4-year colleges, one southern and one northern were surveyed before and after viewing advertisements in one of 3 categories: social norms, health consequences, or tobacco industry manipulation and with 4 emotive execution styles: drama, testimonial (negative emotive) and humor, sarcasm (positive).
Results: Health consequences and negative emotive advertisements were rated significantly most persuasive.
Conclusions: This is the first study to support the effectiveness of tobacco countermarketing advertisements emphasizing the negative emotive health consequences of smoking among young adults.