According to research conducted by ISU students and faculty members, drug awareness advertisements are working.The team, led by Lulu Rodriguez, associate professor of journalism and mass communications, spent the past summer researching how much Iowans are affected by drug awareness PSAs, or public service announcements. Researchers began their study last April by mailing out surveys to adults in Iowa and talking to groups of high school students, Rodriguez said.She said most people remembered the PSAs’s messages and “people could tell you the message without prompting.”Rodriguez said most people felt their attitudes toward drugs had changed because of the PSAs.Charles Cychosz, DPS program manager for Crime Prevention, Research and Training, served on the board for the Partnership for a Drug-Free Iowa and said he was pleased with the results of the research.”To really have an impact on the public, generally you end up spending a lot of money,” he said. “It’s not common for public service campaigns to do this well.”Cychosz said the advertisers will now know which specific techniques are delivering an impact to the audiences and will be able to continue from there.”I think from the research, we’ll also get some valuable insights to help make the ads better in the future,” he said.Tracie Mayberry, junior in journalism and mass communication, assisted with the project and she said she would like to look into the project at a deeper level.”Although we found positive results, that was a one-shot survey,” she said. “We want to know if, over time, the attitudes will be stable. We will survey again to see if those positive attitudinal changes will remain a part of their lives.”