The risk of fetal alcohol syndrome among children is linked to women who drink alcohol during pregnancy. This article describes a social marketing intervention that used a “narrowcasting” approach to raise awareness of this issue among Latina and African American teenage girls in the Los Angeles area. The campaign created messages based on the input of priority populations. The basic media used were small posters and tear-off cards put in places teens frequent. A three-wave, repeated, cross-sectional survey was used to assess campaign impact, with samples drawn from local high school classes. African American teens’ knowledge scores increased significantly after the campaign, whereas Latinas’ did not; Latinas had high levels of knowledge initially. Lack of association between exposure to campaign materials and change in knowledge suggests campaign materials were processed peripherally, not centrally, by respondents. Findings are discussed with reference to communications theories and cultural differences between respondent groups.
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