The response of 1578 school leavers to a campaign combining commercial, Health Boards' and GDPs' sponsorship in an effort to improve dental attendance.

A dental health promotion campaign was developed by Forth Valley Health Board in conjunction with the Scottish Health Education Group and the Department of Marketing at Strathclyde University. The aim was to encourage dental attendance among early school leavers. The emphasis was on the contribution of dental care to appearance and attractiveness. To highlight the importance of appearance, a major clothing retailer offered discounts on clothes to participants who made a dental visit. The impact of the campaign was evaluated by a questionnaire 3 months after its close. Recall of the campaign was high at 62% and 16% actually initiated a dental visit. However, only 2% claimed that the campaign was their main reason for attending. The project demonstrated the feasibility of collaboration between a commercial company and a health board in a health promotion effort. The results underline the difficulties in initiating a behaviour change, overcoming apathy and modifying the lack of felt need for dental care among the age group concerned. It does, however, suggest that there is potential for a more prolonged marketing effort.