TABLE 2—

How Peer Crowd Targeting Can Help Health Communication Campaigns Affect Adolescent Audiences

Stage of Persuasion	Challenge With Adolescents	Solution Offered by Peer Crowd Targeting
Tuning in	Expansive and diverse media landscape can make it difficult to reach target audience	Peer crowds have distinct media patterns in which messages can be placed, including digital and social media
Attending	Adolescents’ heavy daily media diet reduces the likelihood adolescents will pay attention to any 1 message	Peer crowds offer cues (e.g., music, fashions, activities, slang, influencers) that can grab the attention of targeted crowd
Liking	Propensity to resist and rebel against persuasive messages decreases likelihood adolescents will like and engage with message	Use of cultural cues can generate liking (including perceived similarity, in-grouping, and trust for campaign or brand)
Changing individual-level attitudes, social norms, self-efficacy, and behavior	Peer influence and other predisposing factors in one’s daily life can be more powerful than media messages	Identification with crowd members featured in advertisements can enhance persuasive impact; media is particularly well suited to change social norms; peer crowds offer cues, key beliefs, and values to facilitate tailored behavior change interventions
Macrolevel social change	Adolescent culture is heavily dominated by media that often portray unhealthy behaviors; identification with a particular crowd may increase the likelihood adolescents are exposed to unhealthy behaviors via crowd-relevant media	Media play an important role in shaping peer crowd prototypes; public health interventions can function at a macrolevel to change crowd norms