Exposure to the Above the Influence Antidrug Advertisements and Adolescent Marijuana Use in the United States, 2006–2008

Public Health
RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

Christopher S. Carpenter, PhD and Cornelia Pechmann, PhD

Christopher S. Carpenter and Cornelia Pechmann are with the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine. Christopher S. Carpenter is also with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Christopher S. Carpenter, Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine, 428 SB, Irvine, CA 92697-3125 (e-mail: kittc@uci.edu). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the “Reprints/Eprints” link.

Objectives. We examined the relationship between exposure to the Above the Influence antidrug campaign in 210 US media markets and adolescent marijuana and alcohol use from 2006 to 2008.

Methods. We analyzed monthly advertising exposure (targeted rating points) data from the Office of National Drug Control Policy and drug use data from the Monitoring the Future study. We estimated multivariate logistic regression models of marijuana use for students in grades 8, 10, and 12, with controls for individual, family, and media market characteristics and year and regional fixed effects.

Results. For eighth-grade adolescent girls, greater exposure to antidrug advertisements was associated with lower rates of past-month marijuana use (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.52, 0.87) and lower rates of lifetime marijuana use (AOR = 0.76; 95% CI = 0.62, 0.93), but not alcohol use (AOR = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.84, 1.19). Associations were not significant for adolescent boys or for students in grades 10 and 12.

Conclusions. Antidrug advertising may be an effective way to dissuade eighth-grade adolescent girls from initiating marijuana use.