Persuasion Nation? Government Speech and Alcohol Control in the U.S.

• In Event: 2151 - Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Roundtable
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Preventing, Using, Abstaining, and Selling Drugs

Abstract

Governments “speak”—often, and loudly. State speech takes many forms, including government-sponsored reports, press releases, websites, billboards, advertisements in magazines and newspapers, television and radio media campaigns, graphic messages in and around commercial establishments (such as restaurants, bars, and gas stations), and, in the age of new media, “tweets.” At times, this speech is direct, with messages emanating directly from government agencies. At other times governments compel speech by corporations—such as requiring warning labels on cans and bottles of alcohol and on cigarette packages. This paper examines government speech on alcohol in the United States. Examples include mandated warning labels on alcoholic beverages, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, and the Talk. They Hear You campaign. I point out the pronounced limitations of these examples of state speech. In the U.S., alcohol warning labels are relatively inconspicuous (they lack graphic images and are small), and carry constrained messages that do not rotate. Not surprisingly, there is little evidence of these warnings having behavioral effects. The major anti-drug campaign of the past 25 years—the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign--largely avoided the topic of alcohol. Evaluation results suggest that the campaign was relatively ineffective, and may have resulted, in some instances, in higher levels of substance use than otherwise would have been the case. While the new “Talk. They Hear You” Campaign has not yet been evaluated, it seems unlikely that it will have a significant impact at the population level, as it is quite small and relatively unambitious. I explore potential reasons for the weakness of government speech on alcohol in the U.S., as well as over-reliance on speech compared to potentially more effective policy instruments, such as regulation

Author

• Mark Wolfson, University of California, Riverside School of Medicine