Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this research is to demonstrate the effectiveness of pictorial warning labels that leverage the risk of obesity as a deterrent against alcohol abuse. It evaluates the impact of three different kinds of warning labels that can potentially discourage alcoholic drinking: (1) a claim, in text format, that cautions consumers about the product (i.e. a responsibility warning statement); (2) a textual warning label, text-format information on the content of the product or the consequences of excessive consumption (i.e. a synthetic nutritional table); (3) a pictorial warning label, an image depicting a food product with a caloric content equivalent to that of an alcoholic beverage.Design/methodology/approachIn Study 1, a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design is used to evaluate the intention to buy different alcoholic cocktails. The stimuli comprised two cocktails that are similar in alcoholic volume, but different in their caloric content. The images of the products were presented across eight warning label conditions and shown to 480 randomly selected Italian respondents who quantified their intention to buy the product. In Study 2, a different sample of 34 Italian respondents was solicited with the same stimuli considered in Study 1, and neuropsychological measurements through Electroencephalography (EEG) were registered. A post hoc least significance difference (LSD) test is used to analyse data.FindingsThe results show that only the presence of an image representing an alcoholic beverage's caloric content causes a significant reduction in consumers' purchase intentions. This effect is due to the increase in negative emotions caused by pictorial warning labels.Originality/valueThe findings provide interesting insights on pictorial warning labels, which can influence the intention to purchase alcoholic beverages. They confirmed that the use of images in the warning labels has a greater impact than text, and that the risk of obesity is an effective deterrent in encouraging consumers to make healthier choices.
Highlights
Alcohol is defined as a regulated drug and classified as a depressant, as it inhibits reaction times, motor functions and speech (World Population Review, 2020)
Through two different studies conducted in Italy on two samples of respondents – a questionnaire-based study and a neuromarketing study – we examined the intention to purchase two drinks with different caloric content following exposure to three types of warning labels: (1) a claim
The results show that using the pictorial warning label in conjunction with the textual warning label
Summary
Highlights Claims and textual warning labels do not seem to discourage alcoholic drinking New ways to limit the negative effects of excessive alcohol consumption are needed Nutritional information could be presented with an image or a figure A pictorial warning label represents the caloric intake using an equivalent product Pictorial warning labels decrease the intention to purchase an alcoholic beverage Pictorial warning labels determine an increase in negative emotions. The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to Dr Giorgio Trianni, Dr Laura Carmillo, and Dr Emanuela Preite of the neurology unit of “V. The authors would like to express their sincere appreciation to Dr Giorgio Trianni, Dr Laura Carmillo, and Dr Emanuela Preite of the neurology unit of “V. Fazzi” Hospital for their expertise and assistance throughout all neurological aspects of our study
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