Journal of Business & Economic Policy

You Are What You Drink: A Case Study of the Drink Up Campaign
Karen E. Watson, Tina M. Lowrey, L. J. Shrum, Franco Sassi

Abstract
Obesity rates have been increasing worldwide over the last several decades. To address this problem, some national and governmental agencies have instituted social marketing campaigns to change food consumption behaviors. However, interpreting the success of these campaigns can be difficult because such national campaigns have multiple components, each of which may or may not be effective. To address this issue, we report a case study of a recent successful social marketing campaign in the U.S–The Drink Up Campaign–whose objective was to increase water consumption and decrease sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. We focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign and extract the components (strategies and tactics) that were successful and provide recommendations for conducting national-level social marketing campaigns. We discuss how the Drink Up Campaign can potentially serve as a prototype for other large-scale social marketing campaigns.

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