This study examined the effects of public service advertising from two theoretical backgrounds: social learning theory and social control theory. Traditional social learning theory assumes that learning occurs by subjects performing responses and experiencing their effects, with reinforcement as the main determinant. Social control theory, as defined by Donald Black (1984), emphasizes all practices by which people define and respond to deviant behavior. This study is a secondary analysis of data on the attitudinal and behavioral effects of the crime prevention campaign, "Take a Bite Out of Crime," initiated in 1979 and delivered by television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Data were collected through 1,454 personal interviews conducted by the Roper Organization. Two-way analysis of variance produced 6 permutations comprised of 54 dependent variables. The study examined variance in: crime prevention behavior, self-estimation of likelihood of future crime prevention behavior, cognitive effects, recall of campaign, social control involving neighborhood integration, and additional social control agents. Results indicated that the effectiveness of public service advertising campaigns is closely tied to interpersonal communication activity within a community and that, on their own, these campaigns rarely, if ever, achieve the intended attitudinal or behavioral results. (Contains 6 tables of data and 31 references.) (CR)