Message development and placement take into account the particular need to attract underclass students who are striving to find their place at the university and who will shape the culture of the university in coming years. Students on participating campuses are trying to change the culture surrounding alcohol in order to de-emphasize the role of heavy drinking in student life and create new standards of behavior. We hope this shift will indirectly reduce heavy and abusive drinking, as it becomes less acceptable to get drunk and cause problems. The cultural shift should also lead to increased student support for university policies and practices that reflect the new standards and increased demand for alcohol-free social opportunities. In fact, recent research is showing that people may under-estimate levels of student support for alcohol policy reforms.
Cultural change takes time.
Researchers show a lag of two to three years between the initiation of campaigns aimed at cultural transformation and the onset of observable changes. The goal is to institutionalize campaign elements sufficiently, so that the participating schools can continue this dialogue after the project's completion. Each participating campus has organized a campus alcohol policies task force and a student advisory committee on alcohol policy. The role of the task force is to guide the project by providing advice on how best to reach students with the campaign messages and how the campaign can most effectively support existing programming and prevention activities. The task force participates in the development and timing of campaign strategy and messages.