I Drink, Therefore I Belong: Fear of Social Disaproval and Its Impact on Attitudes Towards Anti-Binge Drinking Advertising

With the increasing monetary and social costs associated with binge-drinking in the UK the British government is looking to invest £100 million on anti-binge drinking advertising campaigns. In an experiment we show that consumers who draw high levels of self-esteem from social approval the use of messages that focus on situations that could lead to social disapproval were viewed significantly more positively. Beyond this, we show that attitudes towards anti-binge drinking advertising is significantly impacted by consumers’ self-regulatory behaviour. However, beyond this By drawing on Terror Management Theory and Self-Regulatory focus we are able to offer contributions to the Transformative Consumer Research, Public Policy and Social Marketing literature.

Citation:

Ekant Veer and Marcus Kilian (2011) ,"I Drink, Therefore I Belong: Fear of Social Disaproval and Its Impact on Attitudes Towards Anti-Binge Drinking Advertising", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 264-268.