Effects of Two Kinds of Alcohol Advertising on Subsequent Consumption

Abstract

This paper reports an experiment on the effects of two kinds of alcohol advertising on subsequent consumption. Male passersby in a shopping mall, ascertained to be drinkers aged 19 to 45, each underwent one of three procedures: evaluation of five “lifestyle” advertisements for an imported beer; evaluation of five “tombstone” advertisements for that beer and an interview about their evaluation of the shopping mall. As payment, they received a $5.00 voucher for immediate use at dinner in a licensed restaurant whose management provided data on subjects' alcohol consumption ( = 163). Six to twelve weeks later, 84 subjects were reached by telephone for an ostensibly independent survey about beverage consumption, non-alcoholic and alcoholic. No evidence was found that either lifestyle or tombstone advertising had any impact, immediate or delayed, on any category of alcohol consumption. Nor did subjects' evaluations of the types of advertisements differ significantly.