Brain Response to Antismoking PSA, an EEG Study
Public service antismoke announcements (PSA) are essential tools for promoting messages
worthy of society. In 2015 the Italian Government released an anti-smoking PSA to raise young people’s
awareness of the smoking dangers. To demonstrate the effectiveness of that campaign, the present study
investigated the mental response of 56 participants while watching the PSA through the
Electroencephalogram (EEG). The EEG is frequently employed in neuromarketing to face the limitations
of verbal declarations, allowing to evaluate the advertisings’ efficacy objectively. The present study
analyzed the PSA, considering the smoking habit of participants by dividing them into smokers and nonsmokers. Some main segments of the PSA were identified and separately analyzed for evidencing the
most effective part for the anti-smoking message. Three main EEG indexes have been explored in the
analysis: mental engagement index (ME), spectral asymmetry index (SASI), and the mental effort index.
The t-test performed on the index values showed an increase of the ME and the SASI for smokers
compared to non-smokers (p<0.005). While the repeated measures ANOVA pointed out that the indexes
were differently modulated by the parts of the PSA, showing the effectiveness of the smoking symptoms’
description and the claim at the brain level.