PRETESTING
Once the messages and materials were drafted for the unintended pregnancy prevention campaign, the project contractor pretested them in several ways. The Salt Lake City and Butte family planning clinics again brought together focus groups, including some with young men, to test the messages, visual concepts, radio spots and brochures. The materials were reviewed by members of the project steering committee who knew the subject matter and were familiar with the target audience. All print materials were also tested for readability using the SMOG formula. Later drafts of the brochures were tested in individual interviews with family planning clinic clients in each state as well.
Although the pretesting results were very positive overall, the focus groups and expert reviewers identified areas in many of the materials that required modification. Some examples of the changes made based on the pretesting feedback are:
The "Jason and Miranda" radio spot originally had the soap opera actors behind the camera shift to speaking out of character during a break from filming and commenting on how irresponsible and unsafe their characters were being. The focus group participants found this too confusing, so it was changed to viewers of the soap opera making the comments. This spot also used old-fashioned soap opera music that reminded many in the focus groups of a recent margarine commercial, so new music was created.
Another radio spot highlighted the positive effects of oral contraceptives. Though it originally began by stating that the Pill helps prevent cancer of the ovaries and uterus, focus group participants said that some of the other effects were more salient to them, like cutting down on menstrual cramps and PMS. These features were moved to the beginning of the spot.
Some of the radio spots that used sound bites from interviews with real people were not totally clear because of problems with enunciation or confusing phrasing. These were retaped using actors when necessary.
Out of the six visual concepts for posters, two were eliminated based on feedback from the focus groups. One idea of showing a lottery ball machine with pictures of babies on some of the balls did not go over well in Utah, where gambling is discouraged and which therefore does not have a state lottery. On the other hand, a concept that visually depicted the statistic that nine out of ten young women will become pregnant in a year if they use no birth control resonated with nearly all of the participants.
The focus group participants really liked the brochure on birth control options because of its non-medical nature and use of their own slang words. Based on their suggestions, the contractor added information on the costs of each method and changed some wording to make it more clear.
The campaign tagline, "Don't Kid Yourself," also emerged from the pretesting focus groups. One participant in Salt Lake City, summing up the message in the poster visuals, said "I think it should be something like don't kid yourself.' These aren't accidents, they're excuses." This phrase was a nice double-entendre that concisely stated the campaign's message in both of its meanings. The fact that it came from a target audience member was an added bonus.
Once the changes were made based on the pretesting feedback and the final materials were approved by the steering committee, the contractor had the materials printed and radio ads taped and duplicated. The campaign was almost ready to be pilot-tested in Salt Lake City and Butte.