Public policies and selective visual attention: the effectiveness of awareness messages among young people about the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Brazil

Renê De Oliveira Joaquim Dos Santos,Janaina De Moura Engracia Giraldi,Jorge Henrique Caldeira De Oliveira,Adriano Rogério Bruno Tech

doi:10.1186/s40552-015-0010-3

Renê De Oliveira Joaquim Dos Santos, Janaina De Moura Engracia Giraldi + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40552-015-0010-3

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of mandatory conscious consumption warnings on alcohol advertisements in Brazil among young adults. Through Neuromarketing technique using Eye Tracking equipment, the visual attention behavior of young consumers was verified in laboratory, when they were exposed to beer commercials. The results demonstrated that the effectiveness of these warnings is very low and that this type of public health policies is not having the desired effects. These results emphasize the need to better understand how to attract the visual attention of consumers to these warning messages, clearly demonstrating that the current formats do not play their role of prevention and awareness.

Highlights

Since the 1990s, Brazil is among the five largest brewers in the world, with high per capita consumption and wide consumption among young people, representing almost 70 % of the national beer consumption (Rosa et al 2006)
This study aims to understand the effectiveness of prevention and awareness messages to alcohol consumption in beer commercials by visual attention identification
The evidence obtained in the results of this research point to alarming data for the formulation of public health policies with regard to excessive alcohol consumption

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1990s, Brazil is among the five largest brewers in the world, with high per capita consumption and wide consumption among young people, representing almost 70 % of the national beer consumption (Rosa et al 2006). There have been an increasing number of new customers in the age group of 12–18 years caused by family encouragement, positive associations made in the media or under the influence of friends encouraging consumption initiation and as a distorted form of reputation search among peers and closer interpersonal bonding To control all these social and public health problems, measures and public policies have been de Oliveira Joaquim dos Santos et al Braz J Sci Technol (2015) 2:5 developed in the world and in Brazil to prevent excessive and irresponsible alcohol consumption (Duailibi and Laranjeira 2007; Visser et al 2013). Two years after the implementation of the law, deaths caused by traffic accidents reduced by 6.2 % across the country, ranging in federal states proportionally to the intensity of supervision (Ministério da Saúde 2010)

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