Challenging the collegiate rite of passage: A campus-wide social marketingmedia campaign to reduce binge drinking

A social marketing media campaign, based on a normative social influence mo del and focused on normative messages regarding binge drinking, on a large, southwestern university campus has yielded positive preliminary results of an overall 29.2 percent decrease in binge drinking rates over a three-year period. The Core Alcohol and Drug Survey and the Health Enhancement Survey provided information on student knowledge, perceptions, and behaviors rega rding alcohol and binge drinking. This study represents the first in-depth research on the impact of a media approach, based on a normative social inf luence model, to reduce binge drinking on a large university campus and has yielded promising initial results.