Friday, 11 February 2011
The STS Project continues to see positive shifts in youth smoking in WA.
New resutls from evaluation conducted in 21 metro and regional schools across Western Australia following the most recent campaign (August 2010) indicate that non-smoking continues to become more wide spread among 12 to 16 year olds, with 84% claiming to have never smoked in their life - a significant increase from 73% in 2007.
There continues to be an upward trend in 12 to 16 year olds saying they don't want to end up a smoker and they won't smoke at all in the future.
The Smarter than Smoking 'Burnt/Miss Out' campaign has been on air since 2008 and evaluation has confirmed that it is the most efficient STS campaign ever. It has recored the highest level of message take out and the short-term negative effects of smoking are well engrained in young people.
While the campaign has been the most efficient to date, wear out is setting in and it is now time to evolve the campaign to reflect current attitudes among the target population.
In 2011, a new and very different STS campaign will be launched in August, guided by significant research undertaken with the target group in 2010.