Aim: To quantitatively test audience reactions to a range of existing adult-focused public health television advertisements addressing healthy weight, healthy eating and physical activity to determine which ads have the highest levels of message acceptance, emotional impact and perceived effectiveness.

Method: Eight ads for each of the three lifestyle topics (healthy weight, healthy eating and physical activity) were selected from a sample of over 100 ads identified as part of our earlier content analysis study. Shortlisted ads were chosen based on agreed evaluation and health communication criteria and ratings by members of the research team. A total of 3,000 adults aged 21-55 years (n=1,000 per ad stream) will be randomly assigned to consecutively view and rate four of the eight ads within their stream. Ratings include the emotions (e.g. disgust, fear, hope, guilt) activated by each ad and participants’ agreement with a series of statements about each ad (e.g. was believable, made them stop and think, made them motivated to take action).

Results: Data collection is in progress and results will be available by October. Multivariate logistic regression analyses will examine which types of message content and execution style generate the strongest intended responses on the ad rating outcomes, and which specific ads in each stream perform best. We will also test for differences in ad ratings between sub-groups (e.g. males cf. females; normal weight cf. overweight participants).

Conclusion: Findings from this research will yield insights into the most effective elements of public health advertisements addressing healthy weight, healthy eating and physical activity and allow recommendations to be made about the kinds of messages and executional characteristics that could be further pursued as part of effective lifestyle mass media campaigns.