Evaluation of Effectiveness of FreshFaceFoward: Personal Care Products (PCPs) Social Change Campaign

FreshFaceForward is a campaign to create public awareness of toxic chemicals found in personal care products and the effects of these chemicals on health and environment. Efforts of the social change campaign focus on increasing awareness of the issue among college students, as well as influencing students to change their current personal care products to safer alternatives. During the 2013-2014 academic year at Mercyhurst University, a campaign committee (faculty, staff, and students) worked to increase awareness of the issue and to persuade students to change their products to safer alternatives or decrease the number of personal care products they use on a daily basis. The campaign team has compiled a variety of strategies and tactics including events and activities, fliers and innovative print materials, along with web and social media tactics to help roll out the campaign in fall 2013. In addition, many of the strategies and tactics will be included in a campaign toolkit to allow other Sea Grant institutions to easily implement the campaign. Finally, researchers will conduct qualitative and quantitative research to guide creative and strategic development of the campaign and evaluate effectiveness of campaign. Campaign impact will be evaluated through measures including online pre- and post-surveys designed to measure awareness, attitude and behavior change; audience response to events and workshops; media exposure; web analytics; and interviews and focus groups of campus constituents.