Methodology: Participants will be presented with 6 images of barn murals, similar in color and appearance except for the wording of the phrase in the mural. They will be instructed to look over the images. Once finished, they will hand back the images. With the images hidden from view, participants will be asked to describe the image that stood out to them the most. Participants are not asked about their smoking history.
Image 1
Image 4
Image 2
Image 5 (Idea being assessed)
Image 3
Image 6
Response 1: Image 2
Said there was an interesting line to draw between the two statements, it made the participant think.
Response 2: Image 1
Participant said Mail Pouch campaigns are a deeply ingrained image. Participant wasn't looking at the words, more so at the images.
Response 3: Image 3
No reason.
Response 4: Image 3
Participant is part of a litter pick up group, and one of the points they bring up is why people [litterers] would treat their community like that.
Response 5: N/A
Participant saw all the images as anti-smoking images, other than the ones that were about cigarette butts [one image did not stand out to them].
Participant also claimed to be a smoker.
Response 6: Image 6
Cancer stood out to the participant.
Participant also claimed to be a smoker.
Response 7: Image 6
Coolest looking one according to this participant.
Participant also claimed to be a smoker.
Response 8: Image 6
Participant describes a "not this one, not this one" mentality in which each time a cigarette is picked up, the excuse is that one more cigarette won't make a difference.
Participant also claimed to be a smoker.
Response 9: Image 5
Liked that the ad had an environmental approach, anti-littering approach, health awareness approach, and an economic approach (it takes a lot of money to clean up trash).
Bonus: A Mail Pouch campaign I stumbled across a few minutes away from Ash Cave at Hocking Hills
Results:
Image 6: 3/9 participants mentioned this image. This surprised me because I didn't think participants would respond to a message that incited fear (more than the other messages). However, only one repondant identified specific wording (colorectal cancer) that made the image stand out to them.
Image 3: 2/9 particpants mentioned this image.
Image 1: 1/9 particpants mentioned this image.
Image 2: 1/9 particpants mentioned this image.
Image 5: 1/9 particpants mentioned this image.
Image 4: 0/9 particpants mentioned this image.
How does this improve my project?
Only one participant mentioned Image 5, meaning I didn't succeed in proving that Southeastern Ohioans will respond to a strategy that places more emphasis on respecting their land rather than anti-smoking messaging. However, the participant who did respond to Image 5 had articulate reasoning that aligned with the intention of my test.
None of the participants reponded to Image 4, which means it is safe to say Southeastern Ohioans don't respond to messaging that contains a commmand without situational context related to cultural values.
Since health-related messaging received the most responses, next, I can explore messaging that values personal health in order to attract attention to land-health.