Four interrelated, interdisciplinary projects are proposed to address the question: How, if at all, does the government's warning label on alcoholic beverage containers work and how might a label best work to reduce problem drinking among youths and young adults? This is treated as a problem in marketing communications. The results of the project will yield: estimates of the impact of the government label; a marketing communication strategy; the most effective labels we can design; and evaluations of two cost-efficient ways to enhance the label. First, data from an annual national survey will be used to relate alcohol consumption, heavy alcohol consumption, changes in drinking patterns, drinking and driving behavior, and alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents to the warning label and other elements in the anti-drinking campaign. The FARS data will also be used to evaluate the impact of the warning label and its interaction with state policies on fatal motor vehicle accidents. Both include data gathered before and after the warning label was in effect to gauge long and short run effects. Information on alcohol-related knowledge, feelings, and behavior, as well as reactions to questionnaires, labels, flyers, and posters, will be used to interpret the results of the first analysis and to generate a common core of questions for the other projects. These will be repeated over time, to stay abreast of changing alcohol-related communications in natural environments and how people are interpreting them. With these data, a marketing communication strategy will be developed (labels, posters, and flyers) for two communications experiments. The first is a laboratory test of the current label versus alternative labels we develop, including a no-label control group, to see whether any are clear and conspicuous as mandated by Congress. This will be repeated over time to test a series of experimental labels and to measure change in reactions to the original government label. The second experiment enhances the government's label through the use of flyers and posters. It will compare the differential impact of explicit and subtle penny media messages near the point of purchase.
