Do They Hear You Now? Effectiveness of a Social Norm Mass Media Campaign on a Rural Campus

During the Fall of 2007, several fatalities occurred which were perceived to be alcohol-related and created a community and campus demand for action toward improving student drinking choices. In response to this demand, a low visibility safe-drinking campaign that had been on campus since 2006 was elevated to a frillblown social norm mass media campaign. Blane and Hewitt (1980) argue that social norm mass media campaigns effectively alter knowledge base and occasionally attitudes, but rarely alter behavior, while Whitehead (1979) found that poor implementation often leads to campaign failure. The goal of this project was to determine if the campus social norm mass media campaign altered MSU student drinking behaviors and attitudes toward alcohol, and, if not, possible causes for limited campaign success