The role of alcohol packaging as a health communications tool: An online cross‐sectional survey and experiment with young adult drinkers in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Introduction Alcohol packaging is a potentially valuable means of communicating product and health‐related information, with growing academic and political interest in its role as a health communications vehicle. Methods An online cross‐sectional survey and experiment were conducted with a non‐probability sample of 18–35‐year‐old drinkers in the United Kingdom (n = 1360). The survey assessed exposure to, and engagement with, current messaging on packs, and support for displaying product and health‐related information. For the randomised experiment, participants were shown, and asked questions about, a vodka bottle with either no warnings (control), small text warnings, large text warnings or pictorial (image‐and‐text) warnings; the main binary outcome measures were negative product appeal and social acceptability, and positive cognitive and behavioural impact. Results Two‐fifths of the sample rarely or never saw on‐pack health‐related information, with almost three‐quarters rarely or never reading or looking closely at this. There was strong support for displaying a range of product and health‐related information (e.g. units, ingredients) on packs. Relative to the control, products with warnings were more likely to be perceived as unappealing and socially unacceptable, and to positively impact alcohol‐related cognitions and behaviours. For example, pictorial warnings were 10 times as likely to positively influence cognitions and behaviours (AOR = 10.01, 95% CI: 8.09, 17.46). Discussion and Conclusions Alcohol packaging could have an important role in delivering health messaging. Large pictorial or text warnings may help counteract the appeal and social acceptability of alcohol products and increase awareness of risks, potentially supporting a reduction in consumption and related harms.

Hold my beer! Consumer perceptions of innovative and sustainable secondary packaging

“…This research expands upon several areas of research, including literature relating to sustainability, extrinsic product cues, cue utilization theory and secondary packaging. Our findings contribute to the literature on beverage packaging styles and formats (Barnett et al, 2016;Jones et al, 2022;Orlowski et al, 2022a;Sugrue and Dando, 2018), specifically as it pertains to craft beer, as it is the first to explore consumer perceptions of secondary packaging for beverage products. Additionally, while most food and beverage packaging studies of primary packaging have generally found that packaging influences purchasing decisions through mechanisms such as taste and quality perceptions (Steenis et al, 2017;Wang, 2013), our research expands on this linkage to include perceptions of sustainable packaging and packaging innovation.…”

How Do Young Adult Drinkers React to Varied Alcohol Warning Formats and Contents? An Exploratory Study in France

“…Second, recent evidence reviews have provided recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of alcohol warnings in general [25][26][27], but there is ongoing debate surrounding which warning contents and formats are most effective in targeting young people. Some research has concluded that exposure to alcohol warnings reduces the appeal and social acceptability of alcohol products [28] and significantly increases knowledge about alcohol-related risks among the youth segment [29], whereas other studies have found that alcohol warnings tended to elicit negative and "on-the-defensive" reactions in young people that could prove to be counterproductive or even increase binge-drinking behaviors [21,30]. Some studies have shown that messages featuring short-term (rather than long-term) alcohol risks raise greater awareness of the harms of alcohol among young people [31] because young people feel particularly concerned by short-term risk warnings [32][33][34].…”

Designing Cancer Warning Labels for Alcoholic Beverages: Examining the Impact of Visual Elements

“…These results suggest that a similar approach to adding cancer warning labels to alcohol containers would raise risk awareness and decrease alcohol consumption. Indeed, recent studies have demonstrated that cancer warning labels can improve knowledge about the alcohol-cancer link, increase risk perceptions, and decrease the selection of alcoholic versus non-alcoholic drinks (Clarke et al, 2021;Jones et al, 2022;Morgenstern et al, 2021). Furthermore, awareness of the alcohol-cancer link predicts stronger support for cancer warning labels (Seidenberg et al, 2022).However, research also suggests that the effectiveness of cancer warning labels may depend on the label design.…”