Does the time horizon matters? An application of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory in the effectiveness of anti-drug advertisements in university students

For most drug preventive campaigns on mass media in Hong Kong, youth is usually regarded as single entity with similar needs. However, there are cognitive differences between pre- adolescents, adolescents and young adults. While anti-drug advertisements either stresses on harmful effects of drug or adverse consequences of drug-dependent lifestyle, the advertisements possess informational or emotional appeals to draw the youth attention. Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) suggests that individual either assess time as limited or expansive (Carstensen, 1992), and older adults who possess limited time horizon will prefer emotional-related advertisements more than information-related advertisements, when compared with youngsters (Fung and Carstensen, 2003).

However, age is not the only determining factor in SST. According to Pruzan and Isaacowitz (2006), it is the perceived time horizon which determines individual preference on information- or emotion- oriented goals; adolescent with perceived social ends, such as graduation, will tend to avoid negative images in message. To apply SST in consumer and advertising research, the perceived time horizon can be a remarkable factor to study audience preference on advertising appeals (Isaacowitz et al., 2000).

To address the effectiveness of anti-drug media campaign to youth at different ages, this study is an exploratory research on the possible correlation between student’s perceived time horizon and their preference of appeals in anti-drug advertisements. 100 students of a local university will be selected by quota sampling, with 50 students from year 1 of study, and 50 students from the final year. Students will first complete a structured questionnaire on time horizon (Fung and Carstensen, 2003) to evaluate their time view. Then they will watch four anti-drug TV advertisements, which are selected from recent campaigns called “Stand firm! Knock drugs out” by the Narcotic Division of Hong Kong government at 2016 and 2017. Two of the TVC possess negative images to describe harmful physiological effects of drugs, and the other two stresses on the bright future of youth without drugs. Students will then be asked to recall the information of the most attractive advertisement, and to rate the advertising effectiveness in a questionnaire. By studying the correlations between student’s preference on anti-drug advertisements with different appeals and their perceived time horizon, it can provide insight on anti-drug campaign design to youth segments in different developmental stages.