Beer Marketer's Insights - Drinkers OK with Label Disclosures, Cancer Warnings, Not Taxes, Access Limits: Study

Turns out, drinkers aren't terribly interested in paying more for alcohol or having fewer places to purchase them. But they do tend to favor policies requiring additional disclosures about the contents of their favorite tipple, a study published early this month confirmed. Perhaps more concerningly for industry advocates who have pushed back hard against the threat of mandatory cancer warnings, respondents were more split on that particular policy: just under half supported it and another sizable portion were neutral. Yet despite clear opposition to the most restrictive policies, authors of this study tip their hand, noting that this may be "disappointing" and suggesting that more moderate policies "could offer a valuable starting point" to build toward measures like tax hikes and outlet reductions, preferred by the WHO. Low Support for Taxes, Sales Restrictions, Lower Driving Limit; Neutral Overall About a year ago, researchers asked just over 1,000 respondents who all reported drinking weekly over the past month about a handful of alcohol policies either recommended by the WHO or viewed as "legally feasible in the US." And around 60% of those folks outright opposed policies to "reduce outlets" or "increase taxes." Another 20-25% of respondents were neutral on those policies, leaving just 10% supporting outlet restrictions and 16% favoring tax hikes. Ref 1Support was also fairly low for an additional sales restriction: about 20% favored a policy to "prohibit alcohol sales late at night," while just over half of folks opposed it. Results were a bit more mixed on the proposal to reduce the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) for driving, with over 40% opposed and around 25% in support. And while other policies got more support, none were overwhelming. Indeed, the average support score across all proposed policies was a 2.99, squarely in the middle between a score of 1 (strong opposition) and 5 (strong support).Disclosure of Calorie Content, Drinks, More Acceptable to Many On the flipside, these drinkers offered much higher levels of support for a variety of policies related to label disclosures. Over half of respondents, 56%, gave a thumbs up to mandatory calorie content on packaging, with just 8% opposing such a requirement. Researchers found similar results for mandating "drinks per container" disclosures, with 51% in favor and around 10% opposed. Note that these are among the proposed changes the TTB is currently in the process of weighing as a part of a lengthy label-related rulemaking process.Despite efforts by public health and consumer advocates to convince the TTB to include a cancer warning as part of that rulemaking, changing the language of the current mandatory health warning on alcohol labels will need to be taken up by Congress, a much higher hurdle. But these survey results suggest a large chunk of drinkers are fine with such a change: 49% offered support for a policy to "require cancer warnings on alcohol" and around 15% opposed it. So almost a third of these drinkers had no opinion.Importantly, this survey was conducted in the fall of 2024, a few months before the Surgeon General's Advisory on Alcohol and Cancer garnered so much attention at the start of this year. Still, while this study did not measure any changes in consumption before and after the survey, the fact that so many drinkers offered support for a cancer warning suggests at least a tangential awareness that may not have a major impact on drinking habits.The final policy that researchers asked about focused on marketing: "prohibit alcohol ads on television when children are likely watching." Just over half of folks supported this proposed policy, while almost 20% opposed it. This, of course, is a bedrock policy part of industry self-regulatory marketing codes in place for decades. An attempt to codify such a restriction into law could face a First Amendment challenge.Heavier Drinkers Less Likely to Support, Women More Likely Researchers also analyzed results based on respondent demographics and drinking habits. Unsurprisingly, folks who reported drinking on more days per week or recent binge drinking tended to oppose these "alcohol control policies" compared to lighter drinkers. These heavier drinkers were least likely to support tax increases, late night sales prohibitions and lower BAC limits for driving.That said, very few meaningful differences showed up when splitting up respondents by demographics. The clearest break showed up among women, who were significantly more likely to support most of these policies (the only exception: lower BAC limits for driving). Respondents who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino were also more likely to lend their support for these policies, especially mandatory cancer warnings and reduced sales outlets. Democrats and political independents were a bit more likely than Republicans to support control policies, which "may reflect broader ideological orientations toward government regulation of health behaviors," authors wrote.Authors Hint at Their Own Support, Suggest Starting Small This group of researchers, which includes long-time alcohol policy-focused researcher Dr Thomas Greenfield, don't exactly shy away from showing their own views of these policies. Couched under the endorsement of the WHO, "it is perhaps disappointing that support for these policies was not higher," authors wrote. But policies linked to label disclosures "could offer a valuable starting point for addressing alcohol harms," they continue. In fact, they describe those policies as "ground softening," suggesting that once they are in place, "support for more restrictive policies may grow."Cheers,References1 Grummon, AH, et al, "Support for Alcohol Control Policies Among US Alcohol Consumers," JAMA Network Open, Oct 2025

Drinkers OK with Label Disclosures, Cancer Warnings, Not Taxes, Access Limits: Study

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