Impact of health-oriented marketing claims on young adults’ alcohol product perceptions, hypothetical consumption, and beliefs: a randomized experiment

Aims Health-oriented marketing claims commonly and increasingly feature on alcohol products and target younger consumers. This study aimed to test effects of such claims on young adults’ alcohol product perceptions and intended consumption. Methods Australian young adults aged 18–24 (N = 1009) viewed 10 alcohol products in an online experiment comprising two between-subjects conditions (no claim control, claim) and five within-subjects conditions (low sugar/carb, low calorie, natural, organic, and preservative free). Products were identical between conditions (including labelled alcohol and energy content) except for the presence or absence of claims. Participants rated their perceptions and reported their intended consumption of each product. Results Overall, participants perceived alcohol products displaying health-oriented marketing claims as significantly healthier, less harmful to health, lower in sugar and kilojoules, and more suitable for weight management and a healthy diet than identical products without claims (P = .005-P < .001), but claims did not affect intentions to consume products in the next fortnight. These effects were consistent across most individual claims. However, participants intended to consume a higher number of cans/bottles of products featuring ‘natural’ claims (P = .032) and of products displaying any health-oriented marketing claim in the minority of instances (19.4%) when they did not view the back label featuring nutrition information (P = .031). Conclusions Health-oriented marketing claims commonly displayed on alcohol products lead young adults to misperceive those products as healthier on many dimensions even in the presence of information to the contrary. There is a need to strengthen the regulation of alcohol labelling and marketing by prohibiting these misleading claims.