Cut Films – a social marketing approach to reaching young people?

Authors:
Karen Ford, Jayne Hampson and Lucinda Shaw

Presenters:
Karen Ford
Independent Health Research and Policy Adviser, London, UK

Lucinda Shaw
Director, Deborah Hutton Campaign, London, UK

Abstract
The Cut Films initiative, recently piloted in schools across the country aims to use film making as a means of promoting awareness of the harms caused by smoking to children and young people. The annual competition offers young people an opportunity to work collaboratively, to research, develop and produce short films with an anti-smoking message and share them with their peers on social networking sites. Policy measures and interventions have largely focused on adult cessation with the evidence showing that this was the best way to reduce teenage smoking rates. Now, an increasing number of experts in the tobacco control community believe that there’s a strong argument to develop youth targeted initiatives as part of a comprehensive national strategy. The approach is in line with the new tobacco control strategy for England which emphasises the importance of focusing on reducing tobacco use among young people. New NICE guidelines recommend supporting tobacco education in schools with additional booster activities that are entertaining and interactive.
The intervention draws on good practice; robust evaluations of comparable interventions are scarce. The underlying framework for the initiative is based on the concept of social marketing: adapting marketing philosophy to desired behaviour change for public good. This presentation describes the rationale underpinning the development of the initiative, summarises findings from the qualitative evaluation of the pilot phase with young people in schools and youth clubs and gives recommendations for
local practice.

Source of funding: The Deborah Hutton Campaign is a national charity with roots in very personal events. It was set up after Deborah Hutton, health writer and broadcaster, died of lung cancer as a result of smoking in her teens and twenties. Her children and husband Charlie Stebbings, a leading UK film director, are spearheading The Deborah Hutton Campaign and Cut Films competition to help ensure that her message encouraging young people not to smoke lives on.

ICE Creates, the social marketing agency, contributed their time and expertise free of charge creating the DHC website and brand. KODAK generously included the Deborah Hutton Campaign’s no-smoking brief in their recent Students Commercial Award: the best-in-brief winner, Smoking Law, went on to win Best Overall Film 2009.

Declaration of interest: none

About the presenters
Karen MSc (Med) is an independent adviser in health research and policy. She was head of Public Health Advice at the former Health Development Agency and has over 25 years experience working in the public sector in education, management, research and policy. She works with a range of clients including government departments, charities, and primary care trusts, is an associate director of ICE Creates, a trustee of two charities and until recently a scientific advisor to the Department of Health.

Lucinda is the Director of the Deborah Hutton Campaign and has been in the voluntary sector for over 18 years, working for a broad range of charities including Sense, BLISS, RNID and, most recently, RedR. She also lived in Italy working as a consultant for UNHCR in Rome. An experienced senior manager her skills include fundraising, marketing, communications and general charity management.