Finding Pete and Nikki: Defining the Target Audience for "The Real Cost" Campaign

Successfully reaching at-risk teens aged 12-17 years with smoking-prevention messages capable of changing their knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about cigarette smoking requires a multifaceted approach to understand the target audience's unique demographic, environmental, behavioral, interpersonal, and intrapersonal characteristics. This paper explores the initial target audience segmentation and insights development approach used to create the underlying message strategy for "The Real Cost" youth smoking prevention media campaign-a public education effort responsible for preventing nearly 350,000 U.S. youth aged 11-18 years from initiating smoking from 2014 to 2016. SUPPLEMENT INFORMATION: This article is part of a supplement entitled Fifth Anniversary Retrospective of "The Real Cost," the Food and Drug Administration's Historic Youth Smoking Prevention Media Campaign, which is sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.