In recent years the United States has recognized an increasing need for individual-level disaster preparedness, with federal, state and local government agencies finding only limited success in their efforts to institute campaign-based disaster preparedness programs. Despite these efforts, extant research indicates citizens remain poorly informed at best, and woefully unprepared at worst. This dissertation presents vested interest theory (VI;Crano, 1997; Sivacek & Crano, 1982), as a useful framework for designing and testing effective campaign messages. This research applies VI to redesign and test a PSA video produced by the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security's Red Dirt Ready Campaign for disaster preparedness, using the components of VI to optimize the original PSA's efficacy as measured by a number of important outcomes associated with preparedness, including behavioral intentions, message acceptance, and preparedness related attitudes. The assessment of these variables is comprised of direct self-report measures. Results indicate television-based manipulations with subtle message variations can be effective. The primary vested condition performed significantly better than the control for both behavioral intentions and perceptions of self-efficacy, two critically important outcome variables associated with disaster preparedness. Concerning the critical importance of message design, the results of this research suggest future preparedness campaigns should take a closer look at VI theory.