1101027 Designing a persuasive campaign for more milk consumption amongst teenage girls. Introduction.

Teenage girls in today's society appear to be at the greatest risk in getting osteoporosis later on in their life, therefore understanding and reaching out to this group is one of the ways to combat this condition. Osteoporosis is a health problem that is accountable for around 200,000 fractures in the United Kingdom, of which 85% occurs in women. it has been recognised that increasing peak bone mass to its maximum at the skeletal maturity level may provide important protection against fractures and other osteoporosis related diseases later in life (Cadogan 1997). Research has shown that milk and other dairy products are the most abundant source of calcium which is vital for healthy bone development. Unfortunately, the consumption of these products amongst teenage girls has fallen whilst the rise of soft drinks has risen during the last decade and therefore making them at a higher risk of developing osteoporosis later on in life (Bonjour 2001). This will also lead to the increase of cases of osteoporosis and other related conditions such as fractures and hip replacements which will mean that the NHS will incur huge costs in remedying these conditions in the future. With the growing perception that milk and other dairy products are related to weight gain and also related to acne, teenage girls have therefore reduced their intake of milk in order to maintain their good looks as they are at an age whereby physical appearance appears to be more important to them than inner beauty. Therefore, the aim of this campaign is to promote milk consumption amongst teenage girls. For this campaign to be effective: there needs to be a credible source, a clear and precise message and an audience (Hovland et.al 1953). The Campaign: Target audience: The aim of this campaign is to persuade teenage girls (13-19 years) into drinking more milk and to try and change their attitudes towards milk. For the purposes of this campaign, the target audience will be narrowed down to the younger teenage age group of girls (13-16 years). This is because they are still at an impressionable age and therefore there is more susceptibility amongst this age group according to Visser and Krosnick (1998). At this age, it is common to find that girls are still trying to find themselves and have various moderate to low self-esteem issues therefore they copy what they see in the media and also other adults who they hold in high regard in order to feel as though they fit in and to be on trend. Therefore due to their self-esteem issues, it will be much easier to persuade girls with lower self-esteem issues (Janis, 1954). Although osteoporosis affects both genders, the campaign is aimed towards girls because it has been found that girls and women are much more easily persuaded than their male counterparts (Cooper 1979). This could be because research has shown that females are more socialised and that they appear to be less assertive and less resistant when it came to attempts in influencing them (Eagly, Wood, & Fishbaugh, 1981). Source: The source of this campaign is the communicator, who gives the message. In order for the source to be successful, they have to be seen as credible and also have a significant influence on the population or rather the audience of this campaign who are the targeted teenage girls. Due to the age group of the audience, the source has to be attractive and well known to them as it has been found that popular and attractive communicators appear to be more persuasive than those who are not (Kiesler &Kiesler, 1969). It has also been found that attractive people are perceived to be much more intelligent unlike their unattractive counterparts (Kanazawa &Kover,

1101027 2004). This therefore implies that teenage girls are likely to increase their milk consumption and adjust their attitudes towards milk if the communicator spreading the message is someone they perceive to be attractive and popular. Credibility and expertise also play an important role in persuasion, this is because people are more likely to be influenced and persuaded by those who appear to know what they are talking about and are reputable (Hovland &Weiss, 1952). Another issue to consider would be whether the persuasive issue is supported by a majority group or a minority group (Horcajo et al 2010). As this is a campaign that is being carried out in the UK, it would be beneficial if the government backed this campaign as it would imply that the issue at hand was held by the majority hence leading to more persuasion. The government is also perceived to be reliable, credible and knowledgeable therefore, its involvement would be highly beneficial to this campaign. For the government to therefore appeal to the younger generation, the campaign would need to be spearheaded by celebrities and famous people that would spread the message across. This then combines the attractiveness and popularity factors with the credibility and expertise factors which will then improve the chances of the campaign being successful. Therefore, the likely candidates to be the faces of this campaign should be highly rated female celebrities; those that are perceived to be very attractive and on trend at the moment. The reason why the celebrities for the campaign would be female is because similarity plays a role in whether the audience will accept the message or not (Goethals & Nelson, 1973). This therefore means that young girls are more likely to accept the message if it was a young female celebrity spreading the message e.g. Actress Selena Gomez who is currently 19years or Blake Lively who is 24years. This is also due to the fact that young girls would feel more comfortable hearing the message from somebody who was similar because they would feel that the source does understand the issues that they themselves are going through and they can relate to her (Petty & Cacioppo, 1990). Message: The message of the campaign should be able to raise emotional responses and some slight fear in these young girls as well as be able to still reach out to them in a way that would be attractive to them. Messages that have provoked fear and emotional responses have been found to be more successful in persuasion and attitude change (Hovland, Janis & Kelley, 1953). It has been found that messages that arouse fear are more likely to enhance fear than those that dont (Leventhal, Singer, & Jones, 1965). For this age group, using fear should be minimised in the sense that the campaign shouldnt totally frighten these young girls but instead attempt to change their point of view and try to make them aware of the dangers of not taking care of themselves in a healthy way from when they are young, meaning that it should not be too fearful as there would be a chance of it backfiring (Zhang, 2010). Therefore, a campaign that would be able to appeal and indirectly manipulate their emotions would be of an advantage. The persuasion in the campaign would be indirect because research has shown that we are more likely to be persuaded if we do not believe that we are being manipulated deliberately (Walster & Festinger, 1962). Repetition of a message is vital in order for it to be understood and recalled. Repetition of statements and messages also has an impact of making them appear to be true (Arkes, Boehm & Xu, 1991). This repetition therefore increases the likelihood of familiarity therefore creating a liking towards the message being put across (Jacoby, Kelly, Brown & Jasechko, 1989). Having a constant visual reminder is also likely to increase the chances of persuasion according to Dal Cin et al (2006) who carried out an experiment on participants who were sexually active and provided one group with friendship bracelets which was a visual cue to remind them to use protection and the other group just had the usual standard safe sex methods of interventions. This study showed that safe sex was practiced much more in the bracelet condition (55%) than in the standard condition (27%). This therefore means that in order for the campaign to be a success,

1101027 appropriate visual cues need to be devised in order to get the message across to these young girls. The medium of the message is also an important factor to consider for this campaign. Due to the age group of the target audience, it is important to consider methods that will appeal and grab their attention. Using the media would be useful although not all methods of media communications may be helpful. This age group is highly influenced by what they see, so seeing a celebrity drinking milk in one of their fashion magazines would be more effective than advertising the importance of milk consumption on a TV commercial because during advert breaks, people tend to switch over channels or even due to the advancing of technology, they may fast forward adverts if what they were watching was previously recorded. This age group is less likely to pay attention to an infomercial but product placement in a popular TV show could work. That is, TV programs indirectly promoting products in their shows, so in this case, having popular shows showing famous people who appeal to this age group drinking milk and also indirectly talking about the advantages of milk consumption and the prevention of osteoporosis and other related diseases. The framing of the message should also be taken into account as it has an effect of whether or not the message will or will not be accepted (Hogg & Vaughan, 2008). As this is a health related campaign which is targeting health related behaviour, Rothman & Saloveys (1997) approach should be considered. Their research showed that framing did indeed play an important role in message acceptance. They found that if a message was related to disease detection, then the message would be accepted much more easily if it was framed in terms of loss prevention. Since this campaign is based on prevention, the framing of the message should then be geared towards enhancing positive outcomes and should be in terms of gain i.e. informing young girls on the advantages that they will receive when they increase their milk intake. As previously stated about repetition via visual cues, it may be beneficial to create friendship bracelets and wristbands that may be written M.I.L.K and these letters would indeed spell out the word milk but also be a creative slogan for something that would appeal to the younger generation. Such an approach in using acronyms has been taken by the company French Connection (UK) which has spread out from just designing clothes but also into other such as glasses. As their brand logo they have then used the acronym F.C.U.K which is short and simple and it also appeals to the younger generation because of the placing of the letters in the word which slightly appear to be a swear word which younger kids may find funny and interesting. Having posters of celebrities having a milk moustache on buses, shops, schools, in teenage magazines and areas where teenagers hang out is a concept that may attract their attention. As this is a teenage group, the elaboration likelihood model should be used as a model of persuasion. This model elaborates that people either follow a persuasive message closely or they may not attend to it keenly. As this age group may not have a high need for cognition, they may be less likely to fully attend to the message therefore using a peripheral route in processing the message. Use of peripheral cues is common in advertisements of products especially when they use attractive models to advertise, therefore the message may not be attended to but one is likely to be persuaded to buy the product because they saw an attractive model using the product (Hogg & Vaughan, 2008). Another method that could be used to spread the message across would be to have nationwide campaigns going round to schools and talking about the importance of milk. In these campaigns, famous people that were used in the posters will be visits the schools with other health promoting agencies and this would give the girls a chance to meet their favourite celebrities and also hear a talk as to why milk is important. During these talks, ingratiation as a persuasion tactic can be used in order to increase compliance and persuasion. Although the celebrities are already liked, this tactic of getting the audience to like them would sway those in the audience who may not

1101027 really like that particular celebrity, therefore increasing persuasion (Hogg & Vaughan, 2008). Conclusion: This campaign was aimed at teenage girls aged 13-16 years addressing the issue of milk consumption in order to prevent osteoporosis and other related conditions later on in life. The campaign focuses on means and ways of addressing this issue and attempting to change their attitudes towards milk and dairy products and also persuade them to drink more milk. The campaign will be backed by the government and other health agencies and will involve female celebrities and famous women who appeal to this generation. This combination of groups uses the attractiveness, popularity and expertise factors to improve the chances of persuasion. The message to be delivered is that milk is good for these young girls and should be consumed at a higher level. Various methods will be used to spread the message across and these messages will be designed in a way that they will induce emotional responses, slight fear, indirect manipulation, repetition, use of visual cues and acronyms to increase attitude change and persuasion. Posters, product placements in TV programs, magazine adverts, and nationwide campaigns in schools are the mediums that will be used in this campaign. A campaign using this approach in combining all the above factors is therefore guaranteed to have a high success rate in persuading young girls to drink more milk therefore being a step ahead in the fight against osteoporosis. References: Arkes, H. R.,Boehm, L., &Xu, G. (1991). Determinats of judged validity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 576-605. Bonjour, J. (2001). Invest in your Bones. Journal for the International Osteoporosis Foundation. Cadogan, J. Eastell, R. Jones, N, Barker, M.E. (1997). Milk intake and bone mineral acquisition in adolescent girls: randomised, controlled intervention trial. British Medical Journal (315) 1255-1260. Cooper, H.M. (1979). Statistically combining independent studies: Meta-analysis of sex differences in conformity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,37, 131146. Dal Cin, S. Macdonald, T., Fong,G., ZAnna, M., & Elton-Mardhal, T. (2006). Remembering the message: the use of a reminder cue to increase condom use following a sfer sex intervention. Helath Psychology, 25, (3) 438-443. Eagley, A.H., Wood, W., & Fishbaugh, L. (1981). Sex differences in conformity: Surveillance by the group as a determinant of male nonconformity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 384-394. Goethals, G.R., & Nelson, R.E. (1973). Similarity in the influence process: the belief value distinction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25, 117-122. Hogg, M & Vaughan G. (2008). Social Psychology (5th ed) London :Pearson Education Limited. Horcajo, J., Petty, R. E., & Briol, P. (2010). The effects of majority versus minority source status on persuasion: A self-validation analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(3), 498-512

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