Social Media Campaign Against Alcohol Use

Problem Definition

Alcohol consumption is common in many countries. Except for countries in the
Middle East and other Muslim-majority countries where alcohol consumption is either
prohibited or frowned upon for religious reasons, consumption of alcohol is a norm in the rest
of the world. When taken in mild quantities, alcohol does not cause serious health, social, and
economic problems. However, when abused, alcohol increases the risk of both immediate and
long-term harm.
Immediate harm that alcohol causes includes injuries and death through traffic crashes
caused by driving under the influence of alcohol. As for the long-term harm of its abuse,
research has revealed that alcohol is among three major risk factors of disease burden
globally and a leading cause of deaths. The deaths are a result of not just traffic crashes but
also alcohol-related diseases such as liver cancer and liver cirrhosis.
Apart from deaths, alcohol has also found to have negative effects on cognitive
performance of its users, especially middle-age adults. Even though Zanjani et al. (2013)
argue that alcohol consumption is associated with cognitive stability among middle aged
adults, many other studies have disputed this conclusion. For instance, according to Sabia et
al. (2010) long-term alcohol causes significant decrease in cognitive performance of middle-
aged adults, especially among middle-aged alcohol users from low socio-economic groups.
In addition to reducing cognitive performance alcohol use among 25-50 age group has
also been found to encourage the use of equally harmful substances such as tobacco.
According to Jiang & Ling (2013), alcohol use encourages tobacco consumption, especially if
the alcohol is consumed in large quantities. Apart from encouraging smoking, alcohol

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consumption makes it difficult for a person to quit any of the substance abuse habits that they
have developed over time (Jiang & Ling, 2013; Patrick et al., 2016).
Other studies have also found that alcohol consumption has negative effects on the
moods of its users. For instance, adverse withdrawal after alcohol consumption is
characterized by low/poor moods. Such moods encourage users to consume even more
alcohol to overcome the negative moods and depression (Hogarth et al., 2018). Mood-
induced alcohol consumption may result in alcohol dependence which in turn may lead to
severe health, economic, and social problems.

Alcohol Use in the 25-50 Age Group

Even though alcohol abuse and its consequences affect everyone, the 25-50 age group
is one of the most affected group because individuals within this age group are among the
biggest consumers of alcohol by volume. Statistics that alcohol consumption vary
significantly with age. Younger people tend to consume more alcohol than older ones. The
18-24 age group has been found to consume the highest quantities of alcohol followed by the
25-34 and 35-49 groups (Carrotte et al., 2016). Therefore, the 25-50 age group constitutes the
vast majority of individuals who consume the highest quantities of alcohol. As a result, it is
also the group that faces some of the most serious negative consequences of alcohol
consumption.

Evidence-Based Practices for the Target Population

In realization of harm caused by alcohol consumption in the 25-50 age group, various
countries and organizations have engaged in efforts aimed at reducing alcohol consumption
in this age group. However, these efforts have been hindered by pervasive alcohol marketing.
For instance, the US alcohol industry spends billions of dollars annually on alcohol
advertisement. The advertisement is not only done in traditional media platforms such as

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television and radio, but also social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. Even
though it is not an alcoholic drink, the “Summer Edition” campaign by Red Bull in 2017
showed just how effective drink manufacturers have become at using social media to promote
their businesses (Kirskey, 2018).
The increased use of social media platforms for promotional campaigns by businesses
and non-business organizations reveals that social media campaigns are effective. The
effectiveness of these campaigns is supported by various studies which have shown that
through direct and indirect pathways, social media campaigns can significantly change the
behaviors of population groups. Social media are also effective because of their ability to
invoke emotional and cognitive responses (Buller, Walkosz & Woodall, 2019). Additionally,
social media messages have been found to induce behavior changes through setting an
agenda and significantly increasing the depth and frequency of interpersonal discussion about
a given health problem or issue within the social network of an individual, which may
reinforce desired behavior changes (Buller et al., 2019).

Social Media Platform for the Campaign

The campaign will use Instagram. Instagram is a US-based video and photo-sharing
service that was created in 2010. Since its launch, the service has quickly grown in popularity
across the world. Currently, it has over 1 billion registered users worldwide (Carrotte et al.,
2016). Beginning as a platform for personal use, the service now also attracts multiple
businesses and other organizations who use it to promote their products and services or raise
awareness about various issues. These organizations and brands are attracted not just by the
platform’s large number of users but also its high level of user engagement.
Like other businesses, alcohol industries have integrated Instagram into their
marketing strategies. Their goal is to reach the under-50 age group who are the most active

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Instagram users. Through use of hashtags and influencers, alcohol industries have become
adept at using this relatively new but powerful social media platform to advance their
business interests.
Given the large number of alcohol industries promoting their brands on Instagram, the
platform is perhaps the most appropriate for countering their message and promoting an anti-
alcohol consumption campaign. There are other advantages that Instagram has that makes the
platform the most appropriate for carrying out an anti-alcohol social media campaign. One of
them is that the platform is fairly easy to use (Carrotte et al., 2016). Also, its Instagram
Stories tool makes it great for engaging audiences. It is important to note that an anti-alcohol
social media campaign should not just be limited to spreading awareness about the dangers of
alcohol consumption; it should also engage with the affected individuals. It is for these
reasons that Instagram was chosen as the most appropriate platform to carry out the anti-
alcohol campaign.

Health Promotion Strategy

For a health promotional campaign to be effective, it needs to have an appropriate
message and a clear explanation of the kind of behaviors that individuals within the targeted
population need to change. It should also be able to elicit an emotional reaction that is
powerful enough to drive the desired change.
In regards to the message of the campaign, it will spread awareness about the short-
term and long-term harm of consuming alcohol. The message will also include various ways
in which individuals within the targeted population can change their behaviors. The content
of the message is in line with behavior change theory which holds that messages that provide
reasons why individuals or groups should change their behaviors are likely to be more
effective than those that do not provide any reasons for advocated behavior changes (Carrotte

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et al., 2016). This effectiveness is because such messages enhance the targeted individual’s
beliefs that the outcome contained in the message is not only serious but also that they are at
risk of facing the outcomes that is depicted in the message.
Since Instagram is primarily a visual platform, the message about short-term impact
of alcohol consumption will be conveyed through multiple images of injuries and deaths
resulting from alcohol-induced traffic crashes. There will also be videos of individuals who
had been injured and left disabled sharing their stories about the danger of alcohol abuse.
As for long-term effects of alcohol use, the campaign will include images and videos
of people suffering or who have suffered health problems, such as liver cirrhosis or liver
cancer. These people will share their stories on Instagram with the goal of using their
personal examples to induce behavior change in the targeted age group.
In regard to the behaviors that the campaign will seek to change, it will focus on
inducing reducing the amount of alcohol that is consumed in each sitting, reducing the
frequency of alcohol consumption, or quitting alcohol consumption altogether. These
behavior changes are important because the long-term harms of alcohol consumption usually
depend on quantities that individuals consume. Therefore, the less they consume the better
for their health in the long term. Calling for quitting or reducing alcohol consumption per
sitting will also help in reducing short-term harms associated with alcohol consumption, such
as being involved in traffic accidents and violence.
For the campaign to achieve its objectives of reducing or discouraging alcohol
consumption for individuals within the 25-50 age group, it needs to frame its message in a
manner that elicits strong negative emotional responses. Such responses include shock, hatred
and disgust at the effects of alcohol consumption. A message that not just informs but also

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elicits an emotional response is likely to be more effective than one that simply informs or
raises awareness about the dangers of consuming alcohol.
To attract traffic of the targeted population to the campaign, it will use hashtags, such
as #SayNoToAlcohol. Apart from the use of hashtags, the campaign will also attract the
desired traffic through the use of Instagram’s powerful search functions which allow one to
narrow a search to a particular location or demographic.

How to Monitor Success of the Campaign

When carrying out social media campaign such as the anti-alcohol campaign
discussed in this paper, it is important to measure the campaign’s activities to determine
whether it has been a success or a failure. A successful campaign is one that achieves the
goals of the campaign. In regard to the anti-alcohol campaign, the goal of the campaign is to
increase awareness of the short-term and long-term dangers of alcohol consumption among
adults aged between 25-50. The other goal is to have people within the targeted group to
engage with the campaign, share their experiences, and seek help, if need be. The last, and
perhaps the most important goal, is to have people within the targeted population group to
either reduce or quit alcohol consumption altogether.
To measure whether the campaign’s goal of spreading awareness to the targeted age
group has been achieved, the campaign will use the “reach” metric. The metric looks at how
many people have been exposed to a given message (Carrotte et al., 2016). The more people
that a message reaches, the more likely it is to have the desired impact. Thus, reaching a large
number of people is indicative of a successful social media campaign.
Apart from awareness, another important success measure that the campaign should
examine is engagement. Engagement gives a clue about the interest that the message
generates in the targeted population (Carrotte et al., 2016). Engagement can be measured by

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how many people within the targeted population like, share, and comment on the message
(the campaign’s pictures and videos). Higher levels of engagement are indicative of a
successful campaign.

Conclusion

The negative effects of alcohol abuse among adults aged between 25 and 50 are as
dire as they are many. In the short-term they can cause injuries and death through traffic
crashes and violence. In the long-term they cause health problems such as liver cancer and
cirrhosis. Alcohol abuse is also a major contributor to family breakups and numerous other
social and economic problems. Just as social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram have been used by alcohol industries to promote their products and encourage
alcohol consumption, the same platforms can also be used to discourage consumption of
alcohol. This paper examined the use of Instagram for anti-alcohol consumption campaigns.
It has shown that Instagram is an effective platform for carrying out anti-alcohol campaigns.

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References

Buller, D. B., Walkosz, B. J., & Woodall, W. G. (2019). Use of Media and Social Media in
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