The Effect of Health Advertising on University Students

This research aims to identify the effect of the recent pictorial cigarette pack’s health warning that was imposed at the beginning of the year 2013 on smoking packs in terms of convincing smokers to quit or cut down the cigarette smoking habit. A qualitative approach of expert interviews is used to evaluate the impact of health advertising on the awareness about the risks of smoking habit for universities’ students in Jordan. Focus group and observations are also used in this research. The findings have indicated that there is a theoretical link between the effect of advertising and decision making through affective and cognitive responses. The research has highlighted that the new health warning has no direct or indirect influence over Jordanian university students in terms of cutting down or quitting smoking, although it was described by the interviewees and the media as “scary and terrifying”. This is one of few studies that explore the effect of the picture health warning on the university students in Jordan. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that provides empirical evidence about the influence of health advertising in a developing country.