informative + beneficial...or just plain scary?

My health comm teacher/graduate director, Dr. Edgar, shared with our class tonight that he was interviewed by ABC this afternoon about the new FDA-mandated graphic images to be placed on cigarette packaging by 2012. Here's the article link, just in case ya haven't heard about it yet: CLICK HERE :)

A lot of what we've been learning about lately in our theory class is about fear appeals and how they don't work unless they're done juuuust right. Without getting too deep into the theories...basically, a brilliant health communicator can create a message that shows the target audience a few things: that the risk involved in continuing a poor behavior is a big deal (i.e., they could die) and that the bad effects of this poor behavior are likely to happen to them. With both of those in place, the communicator would then show the audience both how they can be successful and that changing the poor behavior will end the risk. [Whew! I hope you're still with me!] If both of those items aren't in a message, the appeal in the fear appeal is totally lost, money is wasted, the campaign fails, yada yada yada. If it's just the BAM! shock factor and little more, the terrified audience a) just thinks it scary, b) thinks it's scary but not likely, or c) has no where to turn to figure out how to avoid the horror. Get it?? Anyway...

I'm curious what your thoughts are on the cigarette pack pics. According to what we've been learning (and Dr. Edgar's comments in the article), the graphic images alone on the pack won't work. The severity is obviously there, but there's no information included that would make the smoker exclaim, "Oh, that could be me!" <<I say this because I feel confident stating that every American knows there's a danger, and yet new smokers have the packs flying off the shelves each day. There's also no information paired with the picture to show the smoker how they can quit, what support groups are available, or that they can actually be successful in cessation attempts. It's like Little Red Riding Hood with just the pretty pictures and no narration--the severity/susceptibility is implied, but there are no words to tell her that Grandma is actually the horrifying wolf!

I'm also curious about your thoughts regarding the FDA mandating that such gruesome pictures be printed on the side of a pack....where any young child or PTSD victim could see them on the shelves, too. I think that continuing to encourage smoking cessation is always a good idea, as it benefits smokers...non-smokers...the Earth!!...but I think this campaign has a little bit more growing to do before it can truly be as effective as the FDA and American Cancer Society want it to be. They're taking opinions through January 2011--which is awesome--and I think it's important that we all share how we see the campaign becoming even more of an impact! Let me (and the FDA) know your thoughts...

say cheese,
katy