Motivational content features improve tailoring of anti-smoking advertisements

Mass communication campaigns are among the most effective population-level tobacco control policies, yet their impact varies widely across individuals, suggesting substantial scope for optimization. Message tailoring is known to increase persuasion, but a central question remains unresolved: which recipient characteristics should be used for tailoring, which message features matter most, and how should they be matched? In a large pre-registered study, 2,622 daily smokers in France viewed three anti-smoking video advertisements randomly drawn from a library of 38 advertisements (N = 7,866 ad evaluations). Advertisements were independently coded for two complementary dimensions of content: (i) 19 arguments commonly used in tobacco prevention and (ii) 17 motivational content features defined as cues that activate motivational systems (e.g., disgust or parental care). We examined which arguments and content features most effectively increased intention to quit smoking and whether these effects differed depending on individuals’ personality traits or perceived financial situation. Analyses relied on repeated cross-validated LASSO with stability selection and post-LASSO mixed-effects estimation. The results are consistent with individual-level heterogeneity, with multiple content features and arguments showing interactions with personality traits and perceived financial situation. Model comparison further indicated that tailoring motivational content features to both personality and perceived financial situation provided the best predictive account of intention change. These findings suggest that persuasive impact in tobacco prevention depends substantially on person-specific alignment between motivational cues and recipient profiles, offering a framework for more precise and scalable campaign design.