Effects of alcohol warnings and advertisements: A test of the boomerang hypothesis

Online Tailored Weight Management in the Worksite: Does It Make a Difference in Biennial Health Risk Assessment Data?

“…The fact that significant differences were limited to treatment group participants raises the issue of whether the TWMP was the source of the unexpected results. It would be unusual that the tailored communication material used in the TWMP would be the catalyst for unhealthy behaviors, but research has identified a ''boomerang effect'' resulting from health campaigns whereby some people actually take up the target behavior, such as underage drinking (Mackinnon & Lapin, 1998). There has been recognition of the functional salience of developing communication material structured on an appropriate health communication theoretical foundation (Noar & Zimmerman, 2005;Painter, Borba, Hynes, Mays, & Glanz, 2008).…”

Disclosing Celebrity Endorsement in a Television Program to Mitigate Persuasion: How Disclosure Type and Celebrity Credibility Interact

“…This may be disadvantageous for advertisers and marketers because in-program endorsements are presumably most effective when people are not aware of their influence, thus avoiding rebuttal or a negative evaluation of the message (Balasubramanian, Karrh, & Patwardhan, 2006;Law & Braun, 2000;Matthes, Schemer, & Wirth, 2007;Morton & Friedman, 2002). The effects of disclosing risks of alcohol or products have received significant attention (Fischhoff, Riley, Kovacs, & Small, 1998;MacKinnon & Lapin, 1998;Wogalter & Cox III, 1998). However, only limited research has been done on the impact of disclosures of in-program endorsements or, more generally, disclosures of persuasion (Bennett et al, 1999;Jacks & Devine, 2000;Wood & Quinn, 2003).…”

College Students’ Responses to Antismoking Messages: Denial, Defiance, and Other Boomerang Effects

“…Boomerang effects have long been associated with a multitude of countermarketing efforts including the previously noted increase in alcohol consumption among college students in response to antidrinking campaigns (Wechsler et al 2003), increases in alcohol consumption after raising the legal drinking age (Engs and Hanson 1989), increased desire to smoke in response to government warning statements (Hyland and Birrell 1979), significantly less negative attitudes about amphetamine and barbiturate use after exposure to warnings against use of the drugs (Feingold and Knapp 1977), and increased attraction to violent films after exposure to the warnings adopted by U.S. television networks (Bushman and Stack 1996), to name a few. Boomerang effects are not a given, for MacKinnon and Lapin (1998) were unable to replicate these effects from alcohol warnings reported by Snyder and Blood (1992). However, the substantial number of studies that do claim boomerang effects bears serious consideration.…”