"the Big Pitch" Drama Contest: A Spotlight On Youth Participation In Tobacco Prevention

Background:  In Arkansas, youth smoking has declined steadily from 35.8 percent in 2000 to 23.5 percent in 2010, but in 2003 rates were higher than state tobacco control leaders hoped.  There was a need for new tobacco prevention programs to be implemented in Arkansas to help drive down youth smoking rates.  The Arkansas Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program (TPCP) partnered with Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods advertising agency to create a contest that gave Arkansas youth a voice in tobacco control.

Program background:  "The Big Pitch" Drama Contest began in fiscal year 2003-2004.  Its purpose was to let Arkansas youth be involved in creating television ads for the Stamp Out Smoking (SOS) campaign, which is the media and public education campaign of TPCP.  The thinking behind this approach was that submitted television ads would shed light on current youth attitudes toward tobacco and understand what messages would best influence them to never start using tobacco. To solicit participation in "The Big Pitch" Drama Contest, information packets were sent to middle, junior and high school counselors across Arkansas.  In its early years, the contest received fewer than 20 entries from Arkansas students.  With the emergence of new media such as YouTube and Facebook, SOS began integrating these outlets to make the contest more interactive.  Television commercials submitted by students were posted to YouTube and pulled into the contest website.  In fiscal year 2008-2009, SOS created a People's Choice Award and enabled students to watch the commercials and vote for their favorites.  The contest website included links for people to share the site with their friends on Facebook and Twitter.  The SOS Facebook page has been used over the past three years to solicit voting for the People's Choice Award, publicize the winners of the contest and increase viewership of the winning commercials.

Evaluation Methods and Results:   The 2011 drama contest has received nearly 75 entries!  Each year, new schools participate in the contest and win money to purchase new drama equipment for the school.  The winning television spot is often aired statewide as part of the SOS media buy.  In the first year of the People's Choice Award, SOS received nearly 4,000 votes! The success of the program will continue to be measured by the number of entries, the number of pageviews on the website, the number of votes received for People’s Choice and the earned media value of print and broadcast news clippings.

Conclusions:   Each year, the contest impacts more students with a tobacco prevention message.  The entries become more interesting and professional each year.  This campaign allows Arkansas youth to spread the tobacco-free message to peers and adults in a fun and educational way. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Best Practices have proven to be successful in reducing tobacco use through comprehensive tobacco control efforts.  State and community interventions may include educational campaigns, community trainings, parental involvement or student programs.  The Best Practice guidelines were used to develop “The Big Pitch” Drama Contest.