Effects of the Arizona Alcohol Warning Poster

Abstract

An Arizona law, effective January 1, 1992, requires establishments that sell alcohol to display a poster that warns of the risk of drinking alcohol while pregnant. In Study 1, the authors measure the effects of this warning poster on college students before (N = 362), 3 months after (N = 332), 9 months after (N = 369), 12 months after (N = 337), and 18 months after (N = 336) the legislation became effective. After the introduction of the law, students reported more exposure to the poster and greater recognition for the content of the poster, along with some suggestive evidence for stronger beliefs about the risks of drinking while pregnant and less tolerance for alcohol consumption during pregnancy. All the positive effects were small, and there were no significant effects found on intentions to avoid drinking alcohol while pregnant. In Study 2, the positive associations of the poster on exposure and beliefs about the risk of drinking alcohol while pregnant were replicated in a representative sample of Arizona high school students measured before (N = 5396), 18 months after (N = 2058), and 42 months after (N = 2,318) the introduction of the warning poster. In both the high school and college samples, there was evidence that the initial positive effects of the warning poster leveled off over time.

Attributions and Conformity in Illicit Consumption: The Mediating Role of Group Attractiveness

“…Therefore, images of substance abusers and attributions made to account for their behavior may be viewed as equally important, if not more important, determinants of conformity than perceived health consequences. Consistent with this conclusion, recent work on the effectiveness of warning posters in Arizona shows that the behavioral intentions of pregnant women with regard to alcohol consumption were unaffected despite small learning effects regarding the dangerous consequences of such behavior (MacKinnon et al 1999).…”

Where does the logistic regression analysis stand in marketing literature?

“…Scammon et al (1991) analyzed the impact for before and after new warning label requirement among Mormons and non-Mormons in a comparative way. Similar logistic regression models were constructed by MacKinnon et al (1999) and Fenaughty and MacKinnon (1993) that examined the effects of alcohol warning posters.…”

Awareness of Alcohol and Cancer Risk and the California Proposition 65 Warning Sign Updates: A Natural Experiment

“…Few studies evaluating point-of-sale alcohol warnings have been conducted in the US; those that have been conducted focused on alcohol consumption during pregnancy [10,14,15]. These studies found associations between point-of-sale alcohol warning sign laws and decreased odds of any alcohol use [10], binge drinking [14] among pregnant women, and increased knowledge about the risks of drinking during pregnancy [15], compared to states without such laws. Evidence is mixed for the effectiveness of warning labels on alcohol packaging itself.…”