News flash!  The “Abstinence Pledge” didn’t work.  In fact, teens who took the pledge had more unprotected sex than teens who didn’t take the test.  Plus 82% of pledgers denied taking the pledge.

This is just another example of “Feel Good” social marketing that didn’t work.  The avoidance of controversy and the lack of understanding of the audience wasted $200 million dollars.

Social change is not an easy thing.  It’s controversial and people don’t just do what they are supposed to do.  We can look to ourselves as proof.  Do we exercise enough?  Always eat the right foods?  Always drive the speed limit?  No!

A slogan like “Just Say No” meant nothing to the people experimenting with drugs, it only meant something to the people who were not going to experiment with drugs.  If you never answer the question of “why shouldn’t I?” in a compelling way, you will have no result.  The abstinence pledge meant nothing to a 16-year-old in the heat of passion.

Effective social marketing needs to break through in a bold way to be effective.  The target audience needs to perceive a problem and believe that changing behavior is important to solving that problem.