Warning: Scary Warning
Labels Work!
If you want to convince consumers to stay
away from unhealthy diet choices, don't be subtle about possible consequences,
says Leslie John. These graphically graphic warning labels seem to do the
trick.
Marketers
can make a bottle of sugar water look like golden elixir. Can health advocates
sour the taste for consumers? (SteveDF)
San Francisco is in a three-year battle with
the American Beverage Industry over whether soda companies can be forced to
include consumer warnings on outdoor advertising. The law, which is still being
hashed out in court, requires manufacturers to say sugary drinks can lead to
obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.
New research from Harvard Business School
suggests that even if San Francisco wins its court battle, it may lose the war:
Warning labels that aren’t sufficiently graphic don’t work.
“San Francisco policymakers are devoting lots
of time and money to fighting it out in court, and they’re operating on the
assumption that text warning labels are going to work,” says HBS Marvin Bower
Associate Professor Leslie John. “We thought it was important to test it, and
our findings suggest that their text label policy might not move the needle
much at all, at least when it comes to getting people to buy fewer sugary
drinks.”
What does move the needle, the researchers
found, are warning labels based on graphics instead of text. Graphic graphics,
to be specific, splashed with evocative pictures of the after-effects of too
much sugar, like a man’s bulging belly, an insulin needle inserted into a
stomach, and a mouthful of decaying teeth.
“We were working with a graphics team and
they had these stock photos and clip art cartoon images,” John says.
“Initially, the pictures weren’t graphic enough. I kept saying, ‘I need rotting
teeth!’”
The in-your-face images indeed affected study
participants. Not only did they reduce soda consumption, but many also reached
for a healthier option instead—bottled water.
Slated to be published in an upcoming edition
of Psychological Science, The Effect of Graphic Warnings on
Sugary Drink Purchasing is the first real-world test to
determine whether warning labels can motivate people to beg off sugary drinks.
John co-wrote the article with 2018 HBS doctoral degree recipient Grant E.
Donnelly, Harvard School of Public Health doctoral candidate Laura Y. Zatz, and
HBS doctoral candidate Dan Svirsky.
How
much does fountain syrup weigh?
To study the effectiveness of warning labels,
Donnelly, Zatz, Svirsky, and John conducted a field test at a Boston hospital
cafeteria for 14 weeks. They displayed three types of labels at different times
near bottled drink coolers and on soda fountain machines:
·
A calorie label that read, “120-290 calories
per container. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition, but calorie
needs vary.”
·
A text warning label with wording similar to
what San Francisco used in its labels: “WARNING: Drinking beverages with added
sugar(s) contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay.”
·
A graphic warning label with text, plus the
addition of three unsettling images of a fatty stomach, a needle in a midriff,
and rotting teeth.
The researchers gauged the effectiveness of
each type of label over two weeks by tracking the amounts and types of
beverages purchased, and comparing those results to periods when no warning was
posted. They even weighed partially full fountain syrup boxes to determine how
much of the sweet stuff had been used each week with carbonated water to make
soda.
The
results weigh in
Calorie labels and text labels didn’t
dissuade people from buying soda; on average, the same number of sugary drinks
were purchased during those periods as the periods without any labels.
The only warning that slowed soda sales were
those with graphics and text. The share of sugary drinks purchased in the
cafeteria experiment during those periods dropped from 21.4 percent without
labels to 18.2 percent with graphic labels, a decline of 3.2 percentage points.
For some consumers, the bulbous bellies, protruding needles, and nasty teeth
changed their habits; as soda sales dropped, bottled water sales rose from 24.9
percent to 28.1 percent.
Graphic warnings worked by grabbing the
attention of consumers, forcing them to think about the risks involved, and
prompting them to consider the negative health consequences, the researchers
found.
Compared to text warnings, graphic warnings worked better by grabbing the attention of consumers.
“I’ve gotten some early feedback from people
saying that [3.2 percentage points] is not a big effect,” Donnelly says. “Going
into this, we weren’t sure if we’d see any difference. But we observed about
200 people in a two-week period making a drink change. To impact that many
people, we think that’s pretty significant.”
John adds, “Imagine if we piled up all the
sugar that people didn’t eat over those two weeks. It is a small percentage
point difference in absolute terms, but then when you think about all that
sugar, it’s a bigger deal.”
The results may mollify retailers and other
venues that sell a variety of drinks. If warning labels are present, consumers
still purchase drinks; they just choose healthier options. “Cafeteria sales
were neutral. We didn’t see a decrease in drink sales,” John says.
Soda makers and suppliers, however, may
suffer losses if graphic warnings become standard. (That’s the goal, after
all.) But John believes many drink companies are aware that health-conscious
consumers are veering away from soft drinks, so they are already adding
healthier alternatives to their product lines.
“Soda
companies are in a really challenging spot, since their responsibility to their
shareholders is to make money, and their go-to way of doing this has been by
selling junk food,” she says. “But, you can see this trend where they’re trying
to juggle their product portfolios. For example, you see the emergence of
smaller serving sizes, and more water and mid-calorie options.”
Cities
look for public support
If cities want to win public approval for
labels, this research suggests it might behoove them to publicize information
about their effectiveness. A related online survey of 400 participants showed
that once people learned that graphic warnings led to a drop in sugary drink
purchases, they supported the labels in much greater numbers.
One question that remains unanswered by the
study is whether the warnings spur consumers to change their behavior over the
long term. “We don’t know whether the graphic warning labels would have a
sustained effect,” John says. “We had them up for two weeks; it’s possible that
if they are up all the time, people will adapt to them and their impact might
lessen over time.”
Another issue to consider: While the research
highlights the benefits of graphic labels, John realizes the shocking images
may also raise concerns, such as whether they “fat shame” people. “There could
be situations where graphic warning labels could make people feel badly about
themselves, so are we introducing another problem? Or will people tune them out
if they think they’re offensive?
“The conclusion of this research is not that
graphic labels are the answer to all of our consumption problems,” she says,
“but we do find that they shift people to water at least in the short run, and
we think that’s a pretty cool result.”
San Francisco’s 2015 warning label law was
the first initiative of its kind in the nation. Some communities have attempted
other measures to reduce the public’s soda consumption, including New York
City’s proposed cap on portion sizes and Berkeley’s one-cent-per-ounce tax on
sugary drinks.
Donnelly hopes these research findings spur
more effective labeling policies that not only lead people to make healthier
choices, but encourage companies to work with public officials for the greater
good.
“I hope it can inform some of the
conversations firms are having with policymakers,” he says. “These firms can
respond in a positive way—by giving more shelf space to healthier foods.”
by Dina Gerdeman
https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/warning-scarey-warning-labels-work?cid=spmailing-20690509-WK%20Newsletter%2006-20-2018%20(1)-June%2020,%202018
No comments:
Post a Comment