Longitudinal study of awareness, recall, and acceptance of alcohol warning labels

Abstract

This research reports the results of a 5-year (1989–1993) longitudinal study on consumer awareness of warning messages on alcoholic beverage containers. Adjusting for false positives, about one-third of respondents in the 1993 survey were “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to believe that alcoholic beverages containers contain warning messages. However, reported awareness has shown only a small increase since 1991. Respondents were also asked to indicate the content of the warning message. Adjusting for false positives, about one-quarter of respondents mentioned either the birth defects or driving warnings. Recall of the birth defects message has shown steady growth, while recall of the driving message has failed to increase since 1991. The rate of learning about alcohol warnings varied by education level; more educated respondents learned about the warnings more quickly than did less educated respondents. Recall was greatest among young and “heavy” consumption segments; about 40 percent of respondents in these two segments recalled at least one of the warning messages.