Raising Public Awareness

To raise public awareness, you need to select the appropriate channel—the route or methods of message delivery. There are three types of communication channels: interpersonal, community, and mass media. Using a combina-tion of these channels will both ensure that your target audience is exposed to the message and increase the chances that your message is heard, understood, and acted upon.

Communication Channel One: Interpersonal

Interpersonal channels of communication are those that offer an opportunity for one-on-one communications. These channels include people such as teachers, health care workers, counselors, and members of the clergy who deliver messages to individuals and small groups. Though interpersonal channels take more time to develop and reach fewer individuals than other channels, they are among the most effective for creating changes in attitudes and behaviors. Sources who are considered influential and trustworthy by the target audience lend familiarity and credibility to the message. Presentations, such as when recruiting task force members or community partners, are a good way to use an interpersonal communication channel to intro-duce an audience to the fundamentals of your initiative.

PowerPoint presentations, a common tool used to support interpersonal channels, can be used with both small and large audiences to convey the fundamentals of the initiative in a clear, attractive format. Whether you are speaking to program coordinators, PTA members, educators, or health care professionals, these easy-to-use presentations will help you explain and motivate participation in your Too Smart To Start initiative.

We have provided you three PowerPoint presentations (on the CD) that you can use for various purposes and with different adult audiences:

Too Smart To Start Overview
Profiles of 9- to 13-Year-Olds and Parents/ Caregivers
Overview of Harms Associated With Alcohol Use by 9- to 13-Year-Olds

Both on the CD and in Appendix D you will find suggested talking points that you can tailor to reflect your local issues and audience.

Starting Your Presentation

In order to engage your audience from the very beginning and get your presentation off to a lively start, you may want to start your presentation with an icebreaker. Descriptions of two activities you can use to get started follow. Whether you use one of these activities or come up with your own, remember that the key to a successful icebreaker is to make sure the activity relates to the topic.

Icebreaker quiz: How much do you know about alcohol?

(Answers appear in Appendix E.)

Answer true or false for each of the following.

Alcohol gives you energy.
Alcohol can cause permanent memory loss and brain damage.
A mixed drink made with one shot (1.5 ounces) of hard liquor has more alcohol in it than a 12-ounce can of beer or a 5-ounce glass of wine.
Junior high school students talk more about alcohol and other drugs with their friends than with their parents.
Drinking coffee or water does not accelerate the wearing off of alcohol.
More than 60 percent of eighth graders report drinking alcohol within the past year.
Men and women of the same height and weight can drink the same amount.
Alcohol chills the body.
Mixing alcohol with carbonated mixers makes it affect you faster than mixing it with juice
The more you drink, the more tolerant you become of alcohol’s effects.

Initiative Identification:
The Slogan and the Logo

Public awareness messages can be very short and direct, such as Just Say No, or very extensive, such as Preparing for the Drug-Free Years for a parent education program. A good public awareness program uses short messages (slogans) and graphic images (logos) to “brand” the campaign and establish identity.

When you plan a Too Smart To Start initiative in your community, you are entitled to use the Too Smart To Start graphic to identify your group and materials. Using the Too Smart To Start graphic will enable you to project the name and visual personality of the initiative to the public in a positive manner. The graphic is the primary element used to identify the initiative and should be shown in a consistent fashion in all media.

To ensure consistency and sharp resolution, the graphic should always be reproduced from the master art provided on the CD and the Too Smart To Start Web site (www.toosmarttostart.samhsa.gov). Both the CD and the Web site contain the standards manual on preferred use of the graphic.

Icebreaker activity: An insider’s guide to 9- to 13-year-olds.

In this activity, participants are asked to match index cards together. The cards contain words and names of recording artists from popular youth culture and their correct definitions, song/ album titles, or other information. During the presentation, the cards are passed out to audience members, whose job it is to find the card that matches theirs. This activity was created in 2001. Please adapt it using current topics from youth culture popular in your community.

List of terms and definitions:

grunge: A style of rock music that incorporates elements of punk rock and heavy metal, popular ized in the early 1990s and often marked by lyrics exhibiting nihilism, dissatisfaction, or apathy.

hip-hop: A popular urban youth culture closely associated with rap music and with the style and fashions of African American inner-city residents.

pop music: Music of general appeal to young people.

rap: A form of popular music developed especially in African American urban communities and characterized by spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics with a syncopated, repetitive, rhythmic accompaniment.

R & B: A style of music developed by African Americans that combines blues and jazz, characterized by a strong backbeat and repeated variations on syncopated instrumental phrases.

rock ’n’ roll: A form of popular music arising from and incorporating a variety of musical styles, especially rhythm and blues, country music, and gospel. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it is characterized by electronically amplified instrumentation, a heavily accented beat, and relatively simple phrase structure.

Popular recording artists and their most recent songs:

1. Nelly: Batter Up

2. Lil Bow Wow: Ghetto Girl

3. Nsync: Pop

4. Jennifer Lopez: I’m Real

5. O-Town: All or Nothing

6. Enrique Iglesias: Hero

Popular recording artists and something unusual or unique about them:

Britney Spears: She established the Camp for the Performing Arts where children are given the opportunity to attend performing arts workshops and master classes taught by experts in the fields of dance, drama, and music.

Sean (P. Diddy) Combs: Knowing the positive impact the consistent and careful guidance of family, teachers, and mentors had on his own life, he established Daddy’s House Social Programs, Inc., in 1995 to create educational programs and initiatives for inner-city youth.

Mary J. Blige: This person is seen in anti-drug public service announcements, has worked with various education groups, and has helped raise monies for people with AIDS.

Things that 9- to 13-year-olds might be saying about themselves or about society:

Drugs/alcohol, violence, and popularity/fitting in are major concerns for boys and girls.
Which one is the number one concern for boys? Drugs/alcohol
Which one is the number one concern for girls? Popularity/fitting in
What percentage of kids did not sit down to a family dinner in the past week? 25 percent
What percentage of kids describe themselves as responsible? 64 percent
What percentage of kids prefer having more time with friends than having more time to themselves? 82 percent

Ending Your Presentation

In addition to making your presentation memorable, your ending can give your audience a challenge to motivate them. Consider emphasizing the following six actions parents and caregivers can use to protect young people from underage alcohol use:

Establish and maintain good communication with your child
Get involved in your child’s life
Make clear rules and enforce them with consistency and appropriate consequences
Be a positive role model
Teach your child to choose friends wisely
Monitor your child’s activities.

Communication Channel Two: Community

Community communication channels are those that use groups or organizations to communicate a message. These channels reach a larger audience than interpersonal channels yet still maintain some of the influence that makes interpersonal channels so effective. In addition to the spoken word, community channels can be used to disseminate materials such as brochures, pamphlets, and posters or to develop activities that help promote your message. Examples of community channels include town hall meetings, organizational meetings and conferences, workplace campaigns, neighborhood gatherings, and youth groups. Among these various channels, two you may want to consider are special events and skill-building/ education sessions.

Special Events

Special events have become an integral part of public life in most communities. Whether you are talking about the county fair, a neighborhood block party, or a major-league sports event, a special event brings together large numbers of people, promotes civic pride, and builds community spirit while serving as a source of family entertainment and recreation for the entire community. Events are a great way to communicate with lots of people because they offer so many opportunities to deliver messages through preevent publicity, event activities, news coverage of the event, and even promotional materials.

Special events include:

Fairs, festivals, and carnivals
Parades
Rallies
Concerts and other performances
Sports activities
Neighborhood block parties
Health fairs
Cultural celebrations
Celebrations for national and religious holidays and regional specialty products.

Depending on your time and resources, you may choose to hold an event of your own or plan an activity at an established event. Each event in your community gives you an opportunity to tie your message into the overall theme and message of the event. Events with similar goals to yours—like health fairs or alcohol-free family New Year celebrations—make especially good choices.

Whether you decide to plan an entire event or just an activity, you need to define an objective, choose strategies to communicate your message, and allow event organizers and sponsors to meet their goals as well. Typical goals for event organizers and sponsors include attracting a large audience, obtaining media coverage, delivering the sponsor’s target audience, and allowing the sponsor to portray a positive image to the community while keeping attendees safe and entertained.

Common ways to add your message to an established community event are staging an activity, producing an exhibit, and distributing printed materials. The Too Smart To Start Menu describes a variety of events and activities that can be used to support the three objectives of Too Smart To Start. (See Appendix F for a list of events, activities, and products that can be used to communicate underage alcohol use prevention messages.)

To help you get started, here is a list of strategies for making your messages stand out:

Add color to your exhibit by hanging posters, blowups of photographs, or murals
If you have products like T-shirts or hats, put them on mannequins or life-sized cutouts
Make some noise with a small public address system or a bullhorn; play popular music, recite poetry, or perform a rap song
Give out posters, pamphlets, fliers, and stickers with your logo and a short message
Present interactive games, puzzles, banners, questionnaires, or pledge cards.

Skill-Building/Educational Programs

In a long-term public education initiative, you will want to conduct more intensive skill-building education programs for families. Some science-based educational programs that have been shown to decrease alcohol use among 9- to 13-year-olds are listed in the Resources section of this Implementation Guide.

Communication Channel Three: Mass Media

The mass media, with their ability to deliver messages to vast numbers of people within a community, can not only help you publicize upcoming events but also contribute substantially to your effort to raise public awareness. Mass media communications channels are those that use the mass media—network and cable television, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and the Internet—to communicate messages. By understanding the basics of media relations, you can increase the odds of getting your messages placed with the outlets best suited to your target audiences. First and foremost, your media relations should be proactive, compelling, and newsworthy—that is, timely and significant.

Personnel at all media organizations are constantly on deadlines, and they may not always return your calls. Be persistent and professional in your contacts with them, and you will build a reputation as a helpful community member. An important part of a media organization’s mandate is to be of public service. Your ability to keep the media informed about an issue as critical as underage alcohol use and prevention is a vital contribution to their work.

Your community is taking a big step toward safeguarding its young people by participating in the Too Smart To Start initiative. So let’s get the message out to each and every parent, caregiver, and concerned adult to ensure its success!

Making Media Contacts

Your first task is to develop and maintain a list of interested and sympathetic reporters and pro-ducers who cover stories related to your initiative. You can start such a list by using the names of reporters who cover health or youth issues for your local media, including daily or weekly newspapers, radio news program, or television news station. Libraries contain reference materials about local and national media outlets, as do local public relations agencies and professional organizations.

Finding Media Spokespersons

When a member of the media contacts your organization, you will need to have spokespersons who can represent your organization to the public. Task force members make good spokespersons because they are experts on your initiative. Recruiting a local official or celebrity as a spokesperson will add credibility to your messages and make them more compelling. Because some spokespersons will resonate more with certain audiences than others, you should use information from your community assessment to help you choose the best spokes-person for a particular audience.

Opportunities for spokespersons to represent your efforts may include interviews with news reporters from print, radio, and television outlets. A spokesperson should be armed with talking points he or she is able to convey in a succinct and heartfelt manner. Strong verbal skills are the single most important quality to look for in a spokesperson.

Using Media Advisories and Press Releases Effectively

News that succeeds in grabbing and holding the reader’s interest has the best chance of being covered. For example, special events such as families and/or youth engaged in Too Smart To Start activities or a community health fair featuring a Too Smart To Start information booth can be newsworthy. You can get great coverage for your community’s Too Smart To Start events and participation by submitting media advisories or press releases about the events and pitching them to your local media. Local publications may then send out their own reporters to cover the “story” or may at least publish an excerpt from your submission.

Target pertinent news services, offline publications, and online sites. Contact the appropriate news or department editor to introduce your story and its relevancy and importance to readers. For instance, depending upon the content of your story, you might contact a health, community, or education editor.

A media advisory alerts the media to an upcoming event such as a town meeting or press conference so reporters can attend and cover the story. Include only the highlights of your event in outline format: who, what, where, when, why, contact information, and when there will be interview opportunities. The press release is a one- to three-page briefing paper that provides complete information media can use to write a news story.

Tips for writing and submitting media advisories or press releases for the best possible chance of getting published include the following:

Write your news in a journalistic style—that means putting the who, what, where, and when into the lead, or first, paragraph.
Avoid jargon or any language that sounds academic or promotional; an objective tone is best.
Piggyback your event by strategically relating it to a local human interest story, external trends, or breaking news.
Tie your news to a recently published survey, poll, or statistical report.
Close the document with a short summary or list of sponsors.
Provide contact information and email addresses.
Keep it brief.

Be sure your media advisory or press release gets to the correct department, and into the right hands in the preferred format. For example, some journalists prefer to receive email rather than faxes. Call the journalist to confirm his or her preference.

Suggested formats for media advisories and press releases, and a sample letter to the editor, are located in Appendix G.

Holding News Conferences

News conferences and briefings are the way to go to make an important announcement to a large number of reporters. You should use them sparingly; they take a large time commitment from news organizations. News conferences give the media live video or audio coverage. The format of a news conference consists of a basic presentation that is followed by a question-and-answer session giving reporters access to agency spokespersons.

When scheduling a news conference, remember to:

Choose a location large enough to accommodate reporters, photographers, and camera crews.
Make sure there are enough electrical outlets.
Keep the Too Smart To Start logo and other visuals in a prominent position near the speaker. Visuals can include a banner, podium sign, undersized campaign poster, or relevant charts and diagrams.
Have media kits ready to hand out. A media kit may contain factsheets, background information about the speaker, related news releases, PSAs, and photographs (in black and white).

Other Ways of Communicating Through the Media

Public service announcements (PSAs), both audio and print, and editorials, including letters to the editor and op-eds, are effective additional ways for using the media.

Public service announcements

Public service announcements are general messages or specific announcements that are broadcast or printed free of charge by media outlets as a public service. Most media outlets have public services directors that handle requests to place PSAs.

Audio PSAs

One of the most effective ways to reach your intended audience is to use radio PSAs. Research shows that 9- to 13-year-olds spend approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes per day listening to radio, CDs, and tapes. Approximately one-third of adults who responded to a national radio survey reported they turn to radio for their news, and listen for an average of 3 hours a day.

Key to getting the most impact from these announcements is the careful selection of airtime. Ask your local stations for their listener demographics to ensure that the PSA will run when the majority of parents and 9- to 13-year-olds are tuning in. Then request that the announcement air according to the listening patterns of your target audience.

The script for the Too Smart To Start Mosaic of Harms radio PSA, which follows, features 9- to 13-year-olds describing the harms of underage alcohol use (as identified in the scientific literature) from their own perspectives. This PSA, which is also included on the CD in the Community Action Kit, aims to give parents/caregivers, its target audience, insight into what 9- to 13-year-olds think and say about underage alcohol use so parent/caregivers can talk to their children in a way they understand.

Mosaic of Harms 30 Seconds—Radio PSA for Parents

Speaker	Script Text
Narrator:	What do your children know about alcohol?
Child 1:	Makes people do bad things,
Child 2:	Act stupid and do silly things,
Child 1:	Alcohol makes you fight people,
Child 2:	People won’t respect you, personality change,
Child 3:	Can’t think straight, stinky breath.
Narrator:	Listen to your children, talk to them in a way that they understand.
Narrator:	This message was brought to you by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Print PSAs

Another way to get exposure for your Too Smart To Start initiative is through the use of printed PSAs in local periodicals and newspapers.

A series of Too Smart To Start PSA slicks, both in color and black and white, are provided on the CD for both child and parent audiences. Also included in Appendix G is a worksheet to help you organize your contacts with various publications about printing the announcement.

It is helpful to try and determine ahead of time where in the publication your announcement will best reach your target audiences. Demographic information is generally available from the publication to help you do this. Because you are requesting placement free of charge, you cannot dictate where in the publication your PSA will appear, but it never hurts to request a desirable placement! There may be an opening in that section or page at the last minute.

Look in the Community Action Kit for camera-ready copies of the print PSAs.

Editorials: Letters to the editor, op-eds, and guest editorials.

Contributing editorials to local publications is a good way to increase awareness of your community’s participation in the Too Smart To Start initiative. A well-written letter to the editor or op-ed (opinion editorial article) can and should (1) reach and inform many parents, caregivers, and other concerned adults, (2) focus on increasing awareness of harms to 9- to 13-year olds, and (3) increase discussions and debates about underage alcohol use. Although most editorial pieces appear in print media, some broadcast outlets, such as television, local access cable, and radio stations, do air editorial opinions.

Here are some pointers on how you might construct a letter to the editor or an op-ed to increase public awareness of your Too Smart To Start initiative. Remember that letters to the editor are written in response to published articles regarding underage alcohol use, and should be sent promptly following publication of those articles. Op-eds, which give you more space to address the issue, do not have to be written in response to published articles and can be sent at any time.

State your topic or reason for writing. If you are writing a letter to the editor, cite the specific article to which you’re responding. Some newspapers also need to know the date and section in which the article appeared. For example: “Your recent article, Youth and Alcohol, was disturbing. As a teacher in the local middle school, I have seen many instances in which youth have made good decisions and avoided alcohol use.”
State the reasons for your interest. For example: “When students in grades four through six were asked whether it was OK for children their age to use alcohol, most said no. (PRIDE Inc., 2002, May 7, 2000-2001 Pride National Summary: Alcohol, Tobacco, Illicit Drugs, Violence and Related Behaviors Grades 4 thru 6.)”
Cite facts, statistics, examples, and anecdotes to support your point of view. Any local news items that are relevant are particularly effective. Quoting local authorities on the subject also can lend strong support to your message.
Once your position is established, propose logical ways to address the issue, such as increasing community awareness and education through participation in your Too Smart To Start initiative.
From there, you can describe the various elements of the program and how community members can get involved.

You can use the sample letter to the editor to help you get started and the worksheet to compile and organize a list of editors in your area (see Appendix G). After all, the more letters you write, the more likely it is that they will be published, which will mean even greater exposure for your Too Smart To Start initiative.

Monitoring Your Media Coverage

There are three types of media coverage of which you should be aware: coverage generated as a result of your media relations efforts, coverage independent of your efforts, and coverage of underage alcohol use and prevention efforts unrelated to your initiative. It is important to monitor each of these three categories in order to:

Correct misinformation
Identify potential media contacts
Determine which relevant issues receive media attention
Position your initiative with respect to national and regional stories
Identify and replicate successful media strategies
Discover areas that are underreported.

In addition to personally reviewing (or asking a volunteer to review) local newspapers, radio stations, and television news broadcasts, there are a variety of services that will track media hits for you. Clipping services are one way to monitor the print media (newspapers and magazines), although they can not track every story, and it can take a long time to get results. Likewise, broadcast monitoring services provide you with video and audio copies of television and radio broadcasts, but they can be very expensive. Thus you might want to consider such services only when a big story is scheduled to break.

Media coverage can be measured in terms of quantity, placement, and content.

Quantity is an objective measure of a discrete quantity, either column inches or seconds of airtime.
Placement, also an objective measure, takes into account where in the publication or when during the broadcast the story appeared.
Content, a more objective measure, involves categorizing the story as positive, negative, or neutral.

Too Smart to Start Implementation Guide