Evaluating a Television Campaign to Promote Petrol Conservation

Abstract

A quasi-experimental evaluation of the effects of a television campaign to encourage petrol conservation was conducted in three cities in New South Wales, Australia. Intensive four-week television campaigns were conducted in two of the cities; the third served as a control. Approximately 400 respondents selected randomly in each city answered questionnaires (half before and half after the television campaign). The results showed that the pro-petrol conservation films, regardless of theme (saving money or good citizenship), had small but statistically significant effects on most measures of attitudes and beliefs, intention to save petrol in the future, and self-reported conservation behaviors. The results were discussed with regard to the role that televised, brief, public service announcements can play in an overall conservation strategy.