UTHEALTHCOMM.ORG

Creating a Health Communication Campaign to Address the Intersection of Alcohol & Consent Jessica Hughes Wagner1, Katy Redd2, Michael Mackert1, Chris Brownson2, Brittany Boyer2, Kasey Claborn3

1: Center for Health Communication, University of Texas at Austin; 2: Counseling and Mental Health Center and University Health Services, University of Texas at Austin; 3: Dell Medical School

OVERVIEW THE MESSAGE DESIGN PROCESS CAMPAIGN MESSAGES EXPLAINEDThe combination of alcohol and sex is a reality for many college students, and

alcohol is implicated in the majority of sexual assaults. Campuses need effective

messages to convey how alcohol impacts students’ ability to give/get consent. This

poster describes the Alcohol & Consent Project, an evidence-based approach to

building a health communication campaign to address the intersection of alcohol

and consent.

Alcohol & Consent Project Background

The A&C Project is a response to the call from campuses for effective messages to

convey how alcohol use relates to the ability to give and receive consent. For

college students in the University of Texas System, 56% of victims and 77% of

perpetrators were using alcohol or drugs at the time of victimization. (Source:

CLASE Study, 2017)

A&C Project Aims:

• Increase awareness of how alcohol affects our ability to give and get consent.

• Increase students’ ability to have conversations about consent when alcohol is

involved.

• Shift the culture toward normalizing consent conversations, both when alcohol

is involved and not.

Project Timeline:

The UT Center for Health Communication uses a

theory-driven and evidence-based process to understand

health issues and target audiences. We use these insights to

develop strategic messages and tactics that meet the needs of

our partners and have the best chance of changing behaviors.

1. Dialogue Bubbles: Our research showed that students want tools to

have conversations about consent, both when alcohol is involved and

not. Intended to draw students in via realistic thoughts and interactions,

the dialogue bubbles can provide tools to students to engage in these

important conversations. The dialogue bubbles also show how two

people can have very different perceptions of the same situation.

2. Icons: The two icons represent how conversations about alcohol and

consent involve interaction, dialogue, and cooperation. The interaction

could be between sex partners or even friends. Gender-neutral shapes

and colors allow for a more inclusive message where many students

can imagine themselves in conversation about alcohol and consent.

3. Beer Level: Even when two people have been drinking the same

amount, their ability to give and get consent can be drastically different.

Our research showed that male-identified students endorsed a full level

higher than female-identified students in their ability to give or get

consent. Levels were defined by our tested “drunk scale”, which was

used to measure consent ability at each level alcohol consumption

using authentic student language such as “totally sober”, “tipsy”, or

“way drunk”.

4. Body Copy: The text acknowledges the reality for many students that alcohol and sex are often intertwined, and that

combination is often hard to navigate. And if someone is wasted – indicated by visual cues like stumbling or verbal cues like

slurring speech – they can never consent.

5. URL: This points to a web-based home for the campaign. The web page contains information about the campaign,

downloadable materials students or staff can use in their prevention efforts, and resources related to high-risk drinking prevention,

sexual assault prevention and survivor support, and additional tools to help students have productive conversations about alcohol

and consent.

6. Logo: Add your preferred logo here. Each of our pilot school’s students preferred different message sources when asked in our

format research: UTEP students preferred the the UTEP university logo, and UT Austin students preferred the healthyhorns logo

used for University Health Services’ outreach.

Next StepsWhile a pilot launch of the campaign was delayed in spring 2020, we plan to

launch the A&C Project materials across UT System in the 2020-2021 academic

year. A toolkit with many downloadable campaign materials and proposed

marketing strategies will be available to campuses.

This creative concept performed best on key behavioral variables in testing. It was further refined to this.