The case for stringent alcohol warning labels: Lessons from the tobacco control experience

Abstract

Like cigarettes, alcohol is a social drug associated with considerable health and social costs. Relative to cigarettes, regulators worldwide have imposted very modest restrictions in its advertisements. Studies on alcohol health warnings show that they do not have a strong effect on influencing recall, perceptions, and behaviors. Poorly visible and ambiguous health warnings plus the absence of pictorial warnings muddy previous studies. This study takes a different approach, extracting lessons from cigarette health warnings literature for application to the alcohol health warnings' research and practice. I recommend the development of direct health warnings; increase in visibility of the warnings; incorporation of pictorial health warnings; and consideration of plain packaging for alcohol products. A toolkit of these best practices could advance the case for stringent alcohol health warnings policies.

Alcohol Warnings and Moderate Drinking Patterns among Italian University Students: An Exploratory Study

“…Similar results were found by previous research [39,40,41] concluding that Australian university students may consider warning labels ineffective because they do not perceive themselves to be personally vulnerable to the long-term consequences of alcohol use, or do not perceive such consequences to be relevant to them at this point in their lives, attaching more weight to the short-term than long-term consequences of their decisions. In addition, we reveal that young individuals attach more emotional impact to the negative framed warning (logo with the wrecked car) rather than the generic ones, confirming results from previous research [8,22]. …”

“…Alcohol warning labels are intended to increase knowledge and attitudes regarding the harmful consequences of alcohol use and promote changes in consumption behaviour [20]. Although there is no substantial evidence in the literature on the effectiveness of alcohol warning labels in changing behaviour, especially among groups at risk [22,23,24,46], previous research revealed that this could be due to narrow implementation, to the generic nature of the messages used, and to their poor visibility [21,22,28,46]. In this regard, in order to increase the likelihood of alcohol warning messages being perceived as relevant, they need to be congruent with the beliefs of the target audience [9,28].…”

“…Nevertheless, while there is broad consensus that this type of information may improve knowledge and raise awareness and prompt discussion on the harmful health and social consequences of alcohol abuse [10,20], mixed results have been obtained in numerous studies examining the effectiveness of alcohol warning statements in changing consumer behaviour [22]. In particular, studies performed in the United States have found that alcohol warnings have no effect on beliefs about alcohol or intended alcohol-related behaviour [23], while others have found moderate effects on consumption [24].…”

“…In particular, studies performed in the United States have found that alcohol warnings have no effect on beliefs about alcohol or intended alcohol-related behaviour [23], while others have found moderate effects on consumption [24]. According to Al-hamdani (2014) [22], the mixed results obtained in previous studies are mainly connected to the weak content of warnings on alcohol products, their poor visibility, and the lack of pictorial content.…”

Visual attention to alcohol cues and responsible drinking statements within alcohol advertisements and public health campaigns: Relationships with drinking intentions and alcohol consumption in the laboratory.

“…However, other researchers observed limited or no effect of public health campaigns or responsible drinking statements on drinking behavior (see Agostinelli & Grube, 2002 for a review), or even unanticipated effects, such as increased alcohol consumption (Moss et al, 2015) or reduced negative attitudes toward alcohol (Brown, Stautz, Hollands, Winpenny, & Marteau, 2016). Some researchers suggest that the limited effectiveness of responsible drinking statements might be attributed to their design and content, as they generally provide little information about alcohol-related harms and provide no clear goals for behavior change (Al-hamdani, 2014; Martin-Moreno et al, 2013; Wilkinson & Room, 2009). …”