ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE WARNINGS IN MAGAZINE AND TELEVISION ADVERTISEMENTS

Two experiments investigated the impact of warnings in mass-media adve rtising in print (magazine) or broadcast (television) alcoholic bevera ge ads. Experiment 1 showed that participants exposed to highly conspi cuous warnings in print ads performed better on subsequent memory and knowledge tests than those exposed to less conspicuous warnings. Less conspicuous warnings were generally no better than no warnings. In exp eriment 2, participants viewing broadcast commercials with both-modali ty warnings generally performed better than those exposed to voice-onl y or no warnings. Print-only warnings produced performance equivalent to, or in one case lower than, both-modality warnings. Both experiment s show that warnings in ads can communicate information if presented i n a salient form.