Information Campaigns: Prosocial or Not?

According to Media now, "Information campaigns use the techniques of advertising in an attempt to convince people to adopt prosocial behaviors" (Davenport et. al. p 427). Although their goal is to promote prosocial behaviors experiments have actually witnessed their goals ending in the opposite effect.
In elementary school a very common program was D.A.R.E. which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. This program would come to our school and have presentations showing us the effects of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. However, this program unfortunately has been experimented on and seems to encourage children to do just the opposite of what they are being discouraged from. Informing children about the risk of drugs has actually made some children think that if they did them they would be more socially acceptable, when of course this is not what the program D.A.R.E. is trying to encourage. Anti-Smoking ads sponsored by the tobacco company have also had a negative effect when they found that their ads were increasing teen smokers.
I think a lot of these programs have great intentions but they can't do it all on their own. I was blessed to grow up in a family that did not smoke or drink and it was not allowed in our house. So when programs like D.A.R.E. came to my school I listen to them and take them seriously especially when they showed pictures such as black lungs from a chain smoker. Whereas, some of my other friends who grew up in homes that had alcohol and tobacco everywhere didn't take it so seriously. They thought, "Well my parents are still alive and they smoke so it's not as big of a deal as these people make it." I think it has a lot to do with the upbringing of the children and how their parents are influencing them for whether or not programs like D.A.R.E. will have a long term effect.