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Preventing Unsafe Drinking in College-Age Individuals:

A Report for Effective Persuasive Communication

Prepared for: Think Before You Drink Inc.

Produced by the Drenckhahn, Hathaway, Rayburn, and Widmer team

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Abstract
This report examines four persuasive techniques used in campaigns, initiatives, and studies
regarding unsafe drinking, including which techniques worked, and which fell short. The
persuasive strategies include social proof, appeals to the intended audience, social norms
marketing, and risk communication. The following techniques correspond to a specific drinking
campaign, initiative, and study, and each represents the various successes and failures of the
techniques. The techniques that correctly framed the issue achieved better results, while some
framed the issue in a way that actually increased unsafe drinking habits in college-age students
(18-22).

The report details the persuasive techniques’ definitions, the impact they had on college-age
individuals, and analyzes two example campaign posters. After the analysis sections, the report
details the results of the campaigns, initiatives, and studies, and ends with a conclusion and brief
recommendation section explaining which techniques writers should focus on when creating
campaigns on unsafe drinking in college-age individuals.

Keywords: unsafe drinking campaigns, persuasive techniques, social proof, intended audience,
social norms marketing, risk communication, college-age drinking, Project MATCH, DrinkWise.

Executive Summary
This report analyzes four persuasive techniques in unsafe drinking campaigns, initiatives, and
studies, and provides recommendations for which techniques work best. Binge-drinking and
other risky drinking behaviors are a widespread issue in the U.S., especially among college-age
individuals. Unsafe drinking’s severe risks have led to many campaigns, initiatives, and studies
geared towards preventing unsafe drinking in college-age individuals. Each technique, when
framed in a certain way, includes both strengths and weaknesses. In this report, we analyze four
persuasive techniques and their results, and two campaign posters that include the techniques.

This analysis allows us to determine which techniques achieve consistent, effective results for
preventing or lowering unsafe drinking habits among college-age individuals. We follow up the
analysis with a brief recommendation section detailing which techniques work best to prevent
unsafe drinking habits. Our company’s writers can then incorporate these techniques into their
public health documents. Essentially, this report seeks to determine which persuasive techniques
work best to prevent unsafe drinking and present a possible solution that can ensure greater
success in our company’s own persuasive writing.

Introduction
The following section introduces four persuasive techniques and their effectiveness in preventing
unsafe drinking habits among college-age individuals. The four persuasive techniques—social
proof, intended audience, social norms marketing, and risk communication—work in different
ways, appealing to different human characteristics to achieve the best possible outcome. Through
an analysis of these techniques and their results, this report suggests which of the four techniques
are most effective in preventing unsafe drinking habits among college-age individuals. The
analysis continues as we analyze two college drinking campaign posters and how they utilize the
persuasive techniques. Following this analysis, the concluding section summarizes the main
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findings and provides a recommendation for which techniques public campaigns on unsafe
drinking for college-age individuals should include.

Research Methods
To determine how to use and frame persuasive techniques for the highest success, we conducted
research regarding various unsafe drinking campaigns, initiatives, and studies, and analyzed their
effectiveness. The following are four persuasive techniques commonly found in unsafe drinking
campaigns, initiatives, and studies:

▪ Social Proof: This technique involves using the majority to promote a desired behavior,
thus showing people which behaviors they should also exhibit. Social proof involves
finding statistics or visuals that show a significant group of people performing a desired
action or behavior. The correct use of social proof focuses solely on the positive desired
action; for example, showing a majority group abstaining from unsafe drinking
behaviors. On the other hand, an incorrect use of social proof involves a visual showing
people engaging in an undesired behavior, like unsafe drinking.

▪ Intended Audience: This technique involves keeping the intended audience in mind to
appeal to their desires and create a document they can relate to, thus increasing the
probability that the document will be successful. Intended audience includes a variety of
factors: age, gender, career, ethnicity, etc., and also includes specific belief systems. Each
of these factors helps a writer better understand the audience and create a document
tailored to the readers’ specific needs and desires.

▪ Social Norms Marketing: This technique involves communicating evidence and

statistics regarding unsafe behaviors to individuals, which works to subvert the social
desire of drinking to fit in. The evidence and statistics this technique communicates
involve numerical data regarding how many of a person’s peers are actually engaging in
an unsafe behavior. Social norms marketing campaigns seek to subvert the group-based
inclusion mentality of individuals, who tend to overestimate the number of their peers
engaging in unsafe behaviors. Essentially, social norms marketing campaigns focus on
communicating statistics and facts to individuals, inspiring them to decrease their own
unsafe behaviors.

▪ Risk communication: This technique involves communicating the risk of an unsafe

behavior and making sure the audience feels capable of taking action to prevent it.
Documents that utilize risk communication describe issues and the risk they pose to
individuals’ health and safety, and essentially, make them feel personally vulnerable to
the risk. By communicating the risks of an issue, and the ways to prevent it, this
technique strives to achieve action through effective communication of the negative
effects an issue may bring.
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Introduction to Campaigns, Studies, and Initiatives

In our research, we found examples of unsafe drinking campaigns, initiatives, and studies that
utilized the above persuasive techniques; each involves college-age individuals (18-22). While
the four examples include multiple persuasive techniques, we found that each one focuses on a
main technique for persuasion. The following section describes the four examples and their
respective persuasive strategies.

▪ Project MATCH: The National Institute of Health started this initiative with the goal to
analyze how patients react to treatment for unsafe drinking habits, and the impact
treatment has on said drinking habits. Project MATCH (Matching Alcoholism Treatment
to Client Heterogeneity) conducted a study which included college-age individuals and
older, and analyzed the association between social influences and the impact they have on
drinking habits.

▪ DrinkWise: This campaign began as a way to inform the public about how to drink
safely. Using posters and advertisements to convey their message, they utilize graphics
and caricatures to express the risks of engaging in unsafe drinking habits.

▪ Social Norms Marketing Trials: This series of trials appeared in a Cochrane review and
included the results of social norms marketing and the impact the different mediums of
communication had on the trials’ success. A total of 22 trials communicated statistics
regarding unsafe drinking habits to college-age individuals through a variety of different
mediums (computer, email, mail, in-person, etc.). The trials include the varying success
rates for different communication platforms.

▪ Risk Models and Self-Efficacy: A research study conducted at a Midwestern university

surveyed college-age individuals on the risks of unsafe drinking habits and their ability to
change their behavior. An analysis of the participants’ responses shows a common
opinion regarding risk communication and self-efficacy’s effectiveness in college anti-
drinking campaigns.

Results
The persuasive techniques above both worked for and against the writers’ favor, due to their
correct or incorrect use of the persuasive technique. The section below shows the results and
effectiveness of the four persuasive techniques.

▪ Project MATCH: The results of this initiative suggest positive social influence—or
social proof—increases the likelihood that individuals will abstain from unsafe drinking
behaviors and decrease alcohol intake overall. In this study, the positive social influence
involved significant numbers of people engaging in safe drinking behaviors, thus
modeling the positive behavior for the individuals in this study. Thus, the study
conducted within the Project MATCH initiative expresses that people engaging in the
desired, safe behavior work to lower the risk of unsafe drinking habits.
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▪ DrinkWise: The results of one DrinkWise campaign advertisement show that a

campaign fails if the audience feels they cannot relate to the people in its advertisements.
A 2014 DrinkWise advertisement depicted a middle-aged man feeling the effects of
alcohol consumption. The intended audience, college-age individuals (18-22 years)
claimed the advertisement fell short. The younger audience could not relate to the
middle-aged man in the advertisement, and so the ad had little impact on their drinking
habits. This failed advertisement essentially expresses the importance of crafting relatable
campaigns that the intended audience can connect with. Keeping the intended audience in
mind, including their age, gender, ethnicity, etc., allows for greater campaign success.

▪ Social Norms Marketing Trials: The results of these trials show that college-age
individuals overestimate the number of their peers engaging in unsafe drinking habits,
leading them to increase their own drinking to fit in. However, when presented with the
statistics, the participants decreased their alcohol consumption, with the best results
coming from group web/computer communication and individual in-person
communication. Thus, by communicating statistics about unsafe drinking habits among
college-age individuals, it actually lowers the risk of those individuals engaging in unsafe
drinking behaviors.

▪ Risk Models and Self-Efficacy: The results from the study of anti-drinking campaigns
on a Midwestern college campus show where the campus’s risk communication fell
short. The students did not feel personally vulnerable to the risk that unsafe drinking
poses, or capable of preventing the risks. Correctly communicating the risk involved in
unsafe drinking and making the readers feel capable of preventing the risks (self-efficacy)
is essential to curbing unsafe drinking habits in college-age individuals.

Findings
The results above show that a correct use of persuasive techniques leads to greater success.
Taking the time to understand each technique, including what works and what does not, ensures
maximum success in curbing the unsafe behavior.

Examples of Persuasive Techniques in College Drinking Campaign Posters

The first poster below is one of a series of posters at Northwestern University, dedicated to
promoting safe behaviors regarding alcohol. AlcoholEdu started the series, and the statistic
shown on the poster showcases the results of an AlcoholEdu survey conducted with college-age
individuals.

Northwestern Drinking Campaign Poster

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▪ Strengths: This poster includes a clear example of social proof. Social proof works by
using the majority performing a certain behavior, thus communicating that others should
be engaging in that behavior as well. The poster includes a clear statistic showing the
majority engaging in safe drinking behaviors. 82% is a strong statistic, a majority, and
clearly appeals to social proof. Several students at Northwestern University claimed they
thought the poster would help first-year students abstain from unsafe drinking behaviors
and start their college career by drinking safely (Kemp).
▪ Weaknesses: While the poster includes an example of social proof, the statistic is
somewhat ambiguous, in that the source of the statistic is not easy to find upon first
glance. To find where the statistic came from, a viewer would have to read the fine print
at the bottom of the poster, something many viewers would fail to do. By making the
source hard to find, the poster’s credibility may be lower to some people. This was the
case for several Northwestern University students who cited the ambiguous statistic as a
reason for the poster possibly being ineffective (Kemp).

The poster below comes from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Reduce the Risk is
a campaign created on UNC’s campus to communicate the risks of engaging in unsafe drinking
behaviors. The Carolina Union (a campus group dedicated to ensuring the health and safety of all
individuals at UNC) started the campaign, and created the poster below for Counseling and
Wellness services. The poster is one of many created for the Reduce the Risk campaign to lower
the prevalence of unsafe drinking habits in college-age individuals.

University of North Carolina Campaign Poster

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▪ Strengths: The poster above does well demonstrating the risks of unsafe drinking. With
the implication that not “knowing your limit” (drinking too much) will cause other areas
of a college-age individual’s life to deteriorate, the visual clearly shows the overall, big-
picture impact of unsafe drinking. The poster also includes an appeal to intended
audience; with words such as grades, friends, and reputation appearing in one place, it
demonstrates an appeal to college-age individuals.
▪ Weaknesses: The poster falls short in that the only thing it provides as a solution is to
“stop drinking before you’ve had too much.” While the risks are clear, and the solution
shown is simple and straightforward, the poster could go even further and include
resources for preventing unsafe drinking, or direct students (in a clearer way) where to go
for more information on unsafe drinking and how to prevent it. Additionally, social proof
and social norms marketing are absent in this poster; it does not show a majority
performing the desired action, and it does not communicate statistics in any way. A
stronger poster could utilize more than one persuasive technique for maximum effect.

Conclusion
All four persuasive techniques worked in different ways in their respective campaigns,
initiatives, and studies. The Project MATCH initiative’s example of social proof demonstrated
the large impact majority groups have on drinking habits. The DrinkWise advertisement
expressed the importance of appealing to the intended audience, with college-age individuals
failing to connect with an advertisement showing a middle-aged man. Social norms marketing,
demonstrated in 22 trials, showed college-age students decreasing their alcohol intake upon
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seeing the statistics of how many students on their campus actually engage in unsafe drinking
habits. Lastly, a study of drinking campaigns on a Midwestern campus showed the importance of
making readers feel personally vulnerable to the risks of unsafe drinking and showing ways they
can prevent it themselves. Essentially, Project MATCH and the social norms marketing trials
achieved the greatest success by framing their techniques in strategic, successful ways; the
DrinkWise and risk communication examples show what to avoid when creating campaigns to
prevent unsafe drinking in college-age individuals.

Recommendations
From the results above, we recommend successful framing strategies for each of the techniques:

1) Social proof should demonstrate a majority demonstrating the good behavior and refrain
from showcasing the harmful behavior.
2) Intended audience should involve research into the audience’s demographics so the
document may be as relatable and relevant as possible.
3) Social norms marketing must communicate statistics through the most successful modes
of communication: large group web/computer messages (including email) and individual
in-person communication.
4) Finally, risk communication and self-efficacy should inform readers about the risks an
unsafe behavior poses to their health and demonstrate ways to prevent the risk.

Ultimately, by framing the persuasive techniques in the proper way, a writer has a greater chance
of their campaign preventing unsafe behaviors in their intended audience.
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References
Carolina Union. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Apr. 2011,
https://carolinaunion.unc.edu/media-gallery/detail/54/377. Accessed 4 April 2022.
Hingson, Ralph. “Magnitude and Prevention of College Drinking and Related Problems.”
Alcohol Research & Health, vol. 33, no. 2, 2010,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3887494/. Accessed 1 April 2022.
Kemp, Susanna. “NU Social norms campaign on alcohol, other drugs not effective, students
say.” The Daily Northwestern, 13 Nov. 2018.
https://dailynorthwestern.com/2018/11/13/campus/nu-social-norms-campaign-on-
alcohol-other-drugs-not-effective-students-say/. Accessed 4 April 2022.
Pettigrew, Simone, et al. “Reverse engineering a ‘responsible drinking’ campaign to assess
strategic intent.” Addiction, vol. 111, no. 6, 2016, doi:10.1111/add.13296. Accessed 30
March 2022.
Stout, Robert et. Al. “Association Between Social Influences and Drinking Outcomes Across
Three Years.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, vol. 73, no. 3, 2012,
https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2012.73.489. Accessed 1 April 2022.
Wellness at Northwestern. Northwestern U,
https://www.northwestern.edu/wellness/hpaw/campaigns/first-year-social-norms/.
Accessed 4 April 2022.
Wolburg, Joyce. “The ‘Risky Business’ of Binge Drinking Among College Students: Using Risk
Models for PSAs and Anti-Drinking Campaigns.” Journal of Advertising, vol. 30, no. 4,
2001, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4189194. Accessed 4 April 2022.
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Appendix: Annotated Bibliography

Hingson, Ralph. “Magnitude and Prevention of College Drinking and Related Problems.”
Alcohol Research & Health, vol. 33, no. 2, 2010,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3887494/. Accessed 1 April 2022.
This article analyzes various drinking-related injuries and problems on college campuses,
followed by the persuasive strategies they used to lower the number of students engaging
in unsafe drinking habits. In a strategy the author calls “normative re-education,” he
writes about the effectiveness of social norms marketing, a persuasive technique that
focuses on college-aged individuals’ desire for inclusion, and uses that to show how the
majority of college-aged students are actually safe drinkers. This communicates to the
individual that the way to fit in with their peers is to engage in safer drinking habits. The
author mentions 22 trials that utilized social norms marketing and provides the results of
the trials. He states that after the statistics were communicated to the students, there were
significant reductions in unsafe drinking in the months after the trial. He also noted that
the most effective form of communication was large group web/computer messages, as
those individuals showed the greatest reduction in unsafe drinking habits; mailed
statistics showed little to no reduction, as well as group face-to-face communication.
However, individual in-person communication was nearly as successful as the group
web/computer communication. From this information, it is clear that group web- and
computer-based communication works best for college-age students. Ultimately, through
communicating the true statistics of college-age drinkers in the right format, social norms
marketing lowers the prevalence of unsafe drinking on college campuses.
Pettigrew, Simone, et al. “Reverse engineering a ‘responsible drinking’ campaign to assess
strategic intent.” Addiction, vol. 111, no. 6, 2016, doi:10.1111/add.13296. Accessed 30
March 2022.
This article focuses on the importance of creating campaign advertisements that appeal to
the target audience by providing them with visuals they can relate to. The authors in this
article performed a study which involved showing younger audiences (18-22-year-olds)
an ad from the DrinkWise campaign against unsafe drinking. The ad showed a video of a
James-Bond-type figure holding an alcoholic beverage and verbally mentioning the
consequences of excessive alcohol consumption. The results of the study—with the
subjects’ feedback included—revealed that the ad had little impact on them because they
were unable to relate to it. The most common reason for this was the vast age difference
between the James Bond character (middle-aged) and the younger subjects. Unable to
relate to the poster, the subjects were largely unaffected by the message it was trying to
convey. Another tactic that proved unsuccessful was the ‘cool’ vibe the ad contains; the
subjects found the ad was promoting drinking and presenting it in a positive light. Thus,
the ad failed to achieve its goal. Essentially, analyzing one’s target audience to create
relatable visuals and refraining from positively framing the undesired action are two
effective strategies for creating successful campaigns against unsafe drinking.
Stout, Robert et. Al. “Association Between Social Influences and Drinking Outcomes Across
Three Years.” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, vol. 73, no. 3, 2012,
https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.2012.73.489. Accessed 1 April 2022.
This article analyzes the social influence of unsafe drinking behaviors on patients
recovering from alcoholism. The authors include the results of a study involving patients
who participated in Project MATCH, or Matching Alcoholism Treatment to Client
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Heterogeneity, an initiative that seeks to individualize patients’ treatment for alcoholism

to achieve the best possible outcome. The study analyzed the relationship between
patients and people they witnessed engaging in unsafe drinking habits, namely binge
drinking. The results of the study showed that the patients who witnessed people
engaging in unsafe drinking habits were prone to increase their own alcohol
consumption, while those who witnessed people exhibiting healthy drinking behaviors
engaged in safer drinking habits and sometimes abstained from alcohol altogether. The
results clearly show the immense social influence other peoples’ behavior has on
individuals; this matches the concept of social proof, where a significant amount of
people engage in a certain activity, so individuals are drawn to engage in that activity as
well and form a more positive opinion of it. In this case, social proof worked in both a
positive and negative way, with the patients’ safe and unsafe drinking habits depending
on what they saw others doing. Essentially, the article expresses the importance of using
social proof to encourage individuals to engage in safe drinking behaviors.
Wolburg, Joyce. “The ‘Risky Business’ of Binge Drinking Among College Students: Using Risk
Models for PSAs and Anti-Drinking Campaigns.” Journal of Advertising, vol. 30, no. 4,
2001, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4189194. Accessed 4 April 2022.
This article analyzes the results of anti-drinking campaigns on a Midwestern college campus.
After being presented with anti-drinking campaigns ads, the students answered several
questions regarding their opinions on unsafe drinking. Mainly, the questions focused on how
vulnerable the students felt to the risks of unsafe drinking and how capable they felt they were
of changing their habits for the better. The author organizes the article in a question-answer
format, allowing the reader to quickly find the success of the anti-drinking campaigns. The
most common response among the college students was that they did not feel personally
vulnerable to the risks of unsafe drinking; rather, they described unsafe drinking as something
that they believe does not pose a great risk to college students. Another common response was
that they did not feel capable of doing anything to curb the risks of unsafe drinking.
Essentially, through students’ answers, the article focuses on the importance of framing risk
models and expressing self-efficacy in anti-drinking campaigns. By framing the risks in such a
way that the students feel personally vulnerable, as well as providing them with an avenue to
feel they can do something to lessen the risk (self-efficacy), a drinking campaign will achieve
better results. Thus, it is clear that by making students feel personally vulnerable to the risk
and appealing to self-efficacy, drinking campaigns will achieve greater success.