The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

EVALUATION OF THE DRUGS DRIVING TV ADVERT

CHAPTER THREE Awareness and understanding of the Drug Driving TV advert

3.1 This chapter reports levels of awareness of the drug driving TV advert drawing on the results of the Scottish Opinion Survey and the survey of drivers. The results of these surveys are also used to present basic levels of understanding of the message of the advert, while the qualitative research is used to explore understanding of the advert in more depth.

Unprompted awareness of the drug driving TV advert

3.2 The Scottish Opinion Survey carried out in June 2002 (less than 2 weeks after the advert had stopped being shown on Scottish TV) asked respondents whether they had seen or heard any advertising or publicity on the subject of drugs and driving recently. Of the 1,025 respondents, 76% said they were aware of some such advertising or publicity. This figure rose to 81% when confined to respondents with a current driving licence. When asked where they had seen or heard this advertising or publicity, 83% mentioned advertising on TV. This figure was the same for drivers as for all respondents.

3.3 These questions were repeated in the survey of drivers which was carried out between late July and early September 2002. Seventy percent of respondents to the survey of drivers said they had seen or heard some advertising or publicity on the subject of drugs and driving recently, and 76% of these mentioned that they had seen advertising on TV.

3.4 The two surveys are not strictly comparable, since the SOS is a general population survey while the later survey only included drivers, and the age profile of the survey of drivers was lower. Neverthless, the figures do suggest that awareness of the issue of drugs and driving and unprompted awareness of the TV advert remained high 6-10 weeks after the advert had stopped being shown. Figure 3.1 shows the relatively small difference in awareness levels between the SOS (current drivers only) and the survey of drivers.

Figure 3.1 Awareness of advertising or publicity on the subject of drugs and driving (%)

Bases: Opinion survey (drivers only) = 663; survey of drivers = 730

3.5 Unprompted levels of awareness of publicity on drugs and driving did not vary significantly by age in either the survey of drivers or the SOS.

Prompted awareness of the drug driving TV advert

3.6 After establishing unprompted levels of awareness of publicity and advertising about drugs and driving, respondents in both the Scottish Opinion Survey and the survey of drivers were shown a sheet featuring 6 still photographs from the actual drug driving advert and asked whether they had seen the advert on TV recently. Results from both surveys are shown in Table 3.1 below, broken down by age. Again, it should be noted that these results are not directly comparable since the SOS included non-drivers. However, they do give an indication of how awareness levels vary between different age groups.

Table 3.1 Proportions of respondents in different age groups who remember having seen the drug driving advert when shown prompt (% respondents)

Bases: Scottish Opinion Survey = 1025; Survey of drivers = 730

3.7 These results suggest that while overall awareness may have fallen in the 6-10 weeks after the advert was shown, recognition remains high (67%) among the key target age group (17-24 year-olds), indicating that the advert has been reaching it's target audience. This was supported by the qualitative research. Although spontaneous recall and comprehension among interviewees was not particularly good, after viewing the advert during the interview almost all participants remembered having seen the advert before.

Understanding of the advert - quantitative findings

3.8 Respondents who recalled having seen the advert on TV after being shown the picture prompt were then asked what they thought the message of the advert was. The most commonly given answers from both the SOS and the survey of drivers are presented in Table 3.2, below.

3.9 The most commonly-mentioned message in both surveys was 'Don't take drugs and drive' (mentioned by 47% of SOS respondents and 42% of respondents in the survey of drivers). Just a tenth of respondents in both surveys mentioned that the advert was conveying how easy it is to be caught/tested for drugs. A similar proportion thought the advert was suggesting that drug driving is just as bad as drink driving, although in fact there is no mention of drink driving in the advert. These results may suggest that while people understood that the advert was aimed at discouraging drug-driving, they were less clear on the enforcement message - though, as will become clear below, the qualitative interviews suggested a much clearer understanding of this message.

Table 3.2 Description of television advert from prompted telepic (% respondents who mentioned description) ³

Bases: Opinion Survey = 621; Survey of drivers = 343

3.10 The survey of drivers also included a question to test respondents' awareness of the possibility of being prosecuted for drug driving. In general the results of this question suggest that public awareness of the possibility of prosecution is high - 74% of respondents were aware that it is possible to be prosecuted in Scotland for driving after taking drugs. This compares with 66% of respondents who were asked a similar question in an earlier survey carried out for the Scottish Executive (Ingram et al, 2000). Awareness of the possibility of prosecution did vary slightly between those who remembered seeing the drug driving television advert and those who did not recall seeing it. Seventy-seven percent of those who remembered seeing he advert were aware that it was possible to be prosecuted for drug driving in Scotland compared with 70% of those who did not remember seeing the advert.

3.11 Respondents in the survey of drivers who had seen the advert were read a number of statements aimed at gauging levels of understanding and engagement with the advert. They were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with each statement. The results for each statement are presented in Table 3.3, below.

Table 3.3 Level of agreement with statements about the advert (%)

Base = 343

3.12 Eighty-two percent of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement "I wasn't sure what the advert was trying to say". This suggests that people felt they had understood the message of the advert.

3.13 A sizeable minority of respondents (23%) agreed or strongly agreed that "It told me something I didn't know before", suggesting that the advert is helping increase awareness of issues around drug driving. The informative role of the advert is discussed further in the section on the qualitative research, below.

3.14 Encouragingly, 85% of respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement "Adverts like that are a waste of time". This figure was higher for those in younger age groups than for older respondents - 90% of respondents aged 17-44 disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, compared with just 67% of respondents aged over 55 years.

3.15 Respondents aged under 45 years old were also significantly more likely to disagree with the statement "The advert wasn't really relevant to people my age" than people aged 45 and older. Eighty-six percent of 17-44 year-olds disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement compared with 73% of 45-54 year-olds and just 52% of 55-64 year-olds. This indicates that the advert is seen as relevant by drivers in younger age groups. Differences in levels of agreement with this statement between 17-24 year-olds and 25-34 and 35-44 year-olds were not statistically significant however.

3.16 Levels of agreement with statement 4 are discussed in Chapter Four, which considers the style and content of the advert.

Understanding of the advert - qualitative findings

3.17 A key aim of the qualitative research was to explore understandings of the advert in more detail with its main target audience (17-24 year-olds). Participants were shown the two versions of the advert twice during the course of the interview, so unsurprisingly their comprehension tended to be considerably more developed than that of respondents to either of the surveys.

3.18 Three key messages were identified by many participants in the qualitative research. Firstly, the advert was seen as informing viewers about new tests for drug driving. Many participants were previously unaware that you could be tested for drug driving, and for most people the kinds of tests shown in the adverts were new. Secondly, the advert was seen as warning people that they can and will get stopped and tested and possibly prosecuted for drug-driving. Thirdly, many participants picked up on the 'Now who's laughing?' message shown at the end. The advert was seen as showing that while drug-driving may not be something people take seriously in general or at the time, it can have serious consequences in terms of being caught by the police.

3.19 Participants in the qualitative interviews were asked whether they felt the advert was telling them how to behave, in an attempt to gauge whether the advert had avoided the 'moralistic' or 'patronising' tone identified by previous research as a barrier to effective campaigns aimed at young people (Neale et al, 2001). Encouragingly, most participants did not feel that the advert was telling them how to behave. A distinction was made between the informative/warning approach of this advert and a more moralistic approach to conveying the drug driving message.

Impact of the message

Quantitative results

3.20 The self-completion section of survey of drivers included a question asking what, if any, impact respondents felt the advert had had on their own behaviour. Overall, 16% of respondents felt the advert had had 'a lot' or 'quite a lot' of impact on their behaviour, while 80% said it had had either 'not a lot' of impact or 'none at all'. Those who had used cannabis were slightly more likely than those who had never used cannabis to say that the advert had had some impact (26% compared with 13%), but there was no significant difference between the responses of those who had drug driven and those who had not. There were no significant differences between age groups.

3.21 In isolation, these results are difficult to interpret. Although only 16% of respondents thought the advert had had 'a lot' or 'quite a lot' of impact, it may be that other respondents did not feel the advert was relevant to their behaviour as they did not drug drive in the first place.

Qualitative findings

3.22 The findings discussed above suggest that the key messages of the drug driving advert are understood by its target age group at the time of viewing, although results from the quantitative surveys suggest that there may be issues about whether the detailed messages of the advert are retained after viewing. However, although the majority of participants in the qualitative study understood the messages of the advert, many participants expressed doubt about both the credibility of these messages and their application to themselves as individuals. In particular, participants expressed doubt that drug drivers in Scotland would be stopped by the police, and that they would fail the tests if they were stopped. Several felt that the advert did not tally with their own experience, in that they had not personally heard of anyone being tested for drug driving.

3.23 These findings are supported by findings from the survey of drivers which show that while 74% of drivers are aware that it is possible to be prosecuted in Scotland for drug driving, only 30% think that it is either 'likely' or 'very likely' that someone who drives after drugs will actually be caught by the police. The proportion of respondents who thought it was likely or very likely that someone who drug drives will be caught by the police did not vary between respondents who had seen the drug driving advert and those who did not remember seeing it when shown the picture prompt. There was also no significant variation between the responses of people in different age groups. This suggests that many people do not believe that the laws on drug driving are being effectively enforced in Scotland.

3.24 The drivers survey did not contain similar questions on perceptions of the likelihood of being caught drink driving. However, an earlier survey carried out by NFO System Three for the Scottish Executive provides an indication of people's perceptions of the effectiveness of enforcement in relation to drink driving (Anderson & Ingram, 2001). The survey of 1,004 Scottish drivers asked how successful respondents thought the police were in catching drink drivers. Thirty-eight percent thought they were 'very successful' or 'fairly successful'. This may suggest that drivers are somewhat more persuaded of the efficacy of police enforcement in relation to drink driving compared with drug driving, although the differences are not great.

3.25 Clearly if members of the target group for the advert do not believe in the reality of the legal consequences of drug driving, or believe that they could easily evade these consequences, this has the potential to undermine and limit the impact of the advert on attitudes and behaviour.

Key points

• Overall, levels of awareness of publicity and advertising about drugs and driving are high - 76% of respondents in the Scottish Opinion Survey and 70% of respondents in the survey of drivers were aware of some such advertising or publicity.

• Younger respondents in both surveys were more likely than older people to remember having seen the drug driving television advert.

• The quantitative findings suggest that while people associated the advert with discouraging drug driving, they may have been less clear on the enforcement message. However, levels of awareness of the possibility of being prosecuted for drug driving are high - 74% of respondents to the survey of drivers thought it was possible to be prosecuted for driving after taking drugs.

• Respondents aged 17-44 were more likely than drivers in older age groups to disagree or strongly disagree with the statements that "the advert wasn't really relevant to people my age" and "adverts like that are a waste of time". This suggests that the advert was generally seen as relevant and useful by younger drivers.

• Participants in the qualitative research thought the advert was informative about the new drug driving tests being carried out by police and that it contained a warning message about the legal consequences of drug driving. They did not appear to find the advert moralistic in tone.

• Although participants in the qualitative research appeared to understand the key messages of the advert, doubts were expressed about the credibility of these messages and their application to the participants. Doubt that the police actually stop many drug drivers and a belief that many drug users could pass the tests shown in the advert lessened the impact for many participants.

« Previous | Contents | Next »