Physical Activity: Mass Media Campaigns

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Background on Mass Media Campaigns

Mass media campaigns are intervention tools to educate the public about physical activity. This can occur through television advertisements, newspapers, posters, billboards, brochures and a number of other communication channels. Mass media campaigns can highlight the association between physical activity and health outcomes (e.g., physical activity and CVD), promote behavioral change (e.g., increase walking or biking), improve knowledge about the benefits and challenges to being physically active (e.g., increased energy, lack of time), change community norms (e.g., increasing transit use to increase walking and minimize automobile use), and encourage healthy living (e.g., incorporating physical activity into daily routines such as walking the dog or walking the kids to school).

Mass media campaigns can provide a direct message about physical activity. As described above, they can be used to raise awareness, provide information, and assist in changing attitudes and community norms. On the other hand, mass media messages can also provide an indirect message about changes in behavior, environments or policies that lead to increases in physical activity. For example, a mass media campaign could be used to advertise a new walking trail or to support funds for new recreational facilities at a local school.

Mass media messages may be intended for an entire community or they can be tailored to meet the needs or interests of a particular group. For example, the message may be translated into Spanish to meet the needs of Spanish-speaking communities or it can be presented in a cartoon format to grab the attention of children. These messages are often most effective if they are geared toward specific changes in knowledge, attitudes or beliefs about physical activity. For example, it may be more helpful to let people know that getting 10 minutes of activity three times a day can reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and other diseases as opposed to sending the message that physical activity improves health.

Mass media campaigns, when used alone, have generally been effective in changing knowledge, awareness, and attitudes about physical activity with mixed results on their effectiveness in changing physical activity behavior. Some campaigns have also demonstrated the ability to increase individuals’ intention to be active or their confidence in becoming physically active. Most physical activity mass media campaigns have focused on changing individual behavior and social norms, with fewer to date being used to influence policy and environmental factors that affect health. However, because of their success in changing awareness and attitudes, these campaigns have an important role in helping to influence public opinion in favor of policies supporting physical activity.

The scope and duration of mass media campaigns influence their effectiveness in changing physical activity behavior. Smaller-scale campaigns with specific messages tailored to population subgroups are more effective but larger campaigns have greater population impact. Likewise, longer, more intensive campaigns with more frequent messages through many different communication channels are more effective in changing behavior and maintaining behavior change over time while smaller campaigns are often far less complex and costly.

One of the strengths of mass media campaigns is their ability to reach and educate large numbers of individuals on the importance of physical activity. If, for example, a mass media campaign in a county of 500,000 people successfully increases physically activity in only 3% of the population, then the campaign has impacted the health of 15,000 people. Reaching this many people through other intervention strategies may take much more time and funding. Therefore, mass media campaigns are recommended as part of a broader physical activity promotion initiative that includes other intervention strategies.

Compared to the other intervention categories, mass media campaigns can minimize staff time once the campaign is up and running because individuals read, watch, or listen to the messages on their own. It can also be relatively less expensive per person if the intervention is targeting a large community. Finally, the messages and materials have the ability to be reused or updated for long-term efforts. Alternatively, mass media campaigns (particularly television advertisements) can be very expensive to get started and may seem impersonal to individuals in need of social support. In addition, these campaigns are difficult to evaluate in terms of tracking how many individuals actually received or read the messages, whether individuals changed behavior as a result of the mass media campaign and whether the behavior change has been sustained over time.

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