Case Study Analysis: The Other Hangover
The Other Hangover
Parker Edwards
Elijah Hoene
Luke Hinterman
Danielle Lore
Dynamics of Communication
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Executive Summary
The following paper is a group analysis of the case study on “The Other Hangover.” The
Other Hangover is a student designed campaign that was launched to show students the effects
of binge drinking. The hope was to reduce binge drinking amongst colleges. When it comes to
hangovers, most people think of headache, vomiting, and fatigue. The Other Hangover focuses
the spotlight on the feelings and consequences from one’s behaviors while binge drinking. In this
paper we discuss how The Other Hangover portrays to students that being under the influence
will lead to embarrassment, shame, and regret. This campaign teaches students not to over do it.
In this discussion, we talk about the effects this campaign can have on the college faculty,
students, parents, and community members. We go through the positive and negative feedback
from this particular campaign, discussing the unintended messages and if this campaign crosses a
line.
Case Summary
The Other Hangover is a student-designed and driven campaign to raise awareness of the
social consequences of the overconsumption of alcohol, or binge-drinking, that is common
amongst college students. “The Other Hangover” is in reference to the often regrettable actions
taken while binge-drinking and the negative effects these actions can have on the student’s dayto-day life as they must face the consequences of their actions. The effort to raise awareness of
this issue is an attempt to discourage overconsumption but does not entirely discourage the
consumption of alcoholic beverages as a whole as previous studies have found this to have little
effect (96). By encouraging consumption in moderation instead of binge drinking, the campaign
seeks to provide a more realistic attitude towards alcohol consumption for the audience it caters
to. The campaign uses the slogan “don’t over do it” to convey this message through multiple
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mediums including social media, billboards, posters, sports events, the university’s student
newspaper, and booths at campus events (96-8).
The case study examines the effectiveness of this campaign as well as the general
feelings about the methods the campaign used during it’s running period at the University of
Minnesota during the 2010 fall semester (94). The method used to evaluate the effectiveness of
the campaign was created with consideration of past health campaign evaluation techniques in
order to best assess the reach of The Other Hangover and its effect on student attitude towards
the issue of binge-drinking (98). In order to recruit participants, the research group worked with
the University of Minnesota’s Office of Student Affairs to send an email invitation to participate
to approximately 5000 of it’s undergraduate students at the beginning of the academic school
year. This email included an initial questionnaire to assess the attitude of the participants towards
binge drinking prior to exposure to The Other Hangover campaign. A total of 471 undergraduate
students responded to the email questionnaire. To provide accurate data and avoid Hawthorn
effect (which is caused by participants of longitudinal surveys responding with bias due to the
awareness of their participation in the evaluation), a separate group of 439 randomly selected
undergraduate students received a survey by mail at the end of the campaign period. The initial
group completed three surveys by email, one at the beginning of the campaign period, one in
October, during the campaign, and one after the campaign period ended. While the initial sample
size of the evaluation was 910, only 851 participants completed the evaluation. All participants
were compensated, and to avoid a reduction in participation over time, also known as attrition,
and as incentive to complete the questionnaires, students were compensated for the completion
of further surveys (98-101).
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The surveys given to the participants covered topics such as alcohol usage and frequency,
the effect of drinking on behavior and the outcomes, attitude and beliefs, motivation to drink,
demographic information, campus environment, and media habits. The questionnaires involved
both fixed-response and open-ended questions which required participants to write about their
awareness, feelings, if they thought the message was effective, and likelihood to talk about the
campaign with peers (101).
There was no significant difference in responses regarding campaign recognition, free
recall or alcohol consumption found between the two groups (101). Data from both groups was
combined for the final evaluation which measured changes in attitude and behavior throughout
the surveying process. The data showed that 90% of respondents were between 18 and 25 years
of age, maintained an average grade point average (GPA) of 3.43, and were in majority female,
white, and/or full time students. The majority of participants reported having consumed alcohol
within the last 12 months. Male participants were shown to be more likely to have consumed 5 or
more drinks in a sitting at least once in the past two weeks (101-3).
To examine the effectiveness of the campaign techniques used, participants were given
questions to measure recall and recognition. Recall was measured by asking the participants to
name any anti-binge drinking campaigns they had seen or heard of recently. Nearly half of all
respondents mentioned The Other Hangover, and 11% of others were familiar enough to
describe the material, but did not recall the campaign name. Additionally, the majority of
respondents said they recognized the campaign logo and materials from around campus, and
remembered seeing it several times a week. Full time students and those who lived on campus
showed the highest amount of recognition. Specific campaign advertisements were more
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frequently recognized than others, and these numbers reflected the exposure due to the number
and placement of each ad in the campus environment (103-6).
In both fixed-answer and open-ended questions, survey participants largely reported that
they related to the messages and scenarios presented by The Other Hangover campaign, and that
they seemed realistic. The attitude towards the campaign was generally positive, with 78% of
participants responding that they liked the campaign (106). There was no significant difference
in the ratings between demographic groups within the participants (107). Of those who criticised
the campaign, they questioned the campaign’s focus on reputation as opposed to health, safety,
or legal consequences that can occur with binge-drinking. There were also criticisms on the
content of the advertisements and the messages they may unintentionally convey due to the
nature of the content (112).
When asked if they had talked about the campaign with friends, over half responded that
they had (109). Of the group who reported having conversations regarding the campaign, there
were significant differences in the responses between the different demographic groups, mostly
affecting those who are at higher risk of engaging in binge drinking, those who are female, under
21, live on campus, and are sports fans. Conversations were mostly positive (109-11).
While the evaluation of The Other Hangover showed high percentages of recognition,
recall, and positive regard, the attitude of the participants towards binge drinking remained stable
throughout the evaluation period (114).
What are some of the potential criticisms that members of the community might have
regarding the approach of the campaign and its focus on reputations and the social
consequences of binge drinking?
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One potential criticism is that the core strategy of the campaign has not addressed
important factors such as health, safety, or legal issues associated with overconsumption. The
core strategy of the campaign focused on the reputations and social consequences of binge
drinking and left out important factors such as health, safety, and legal issues associated with
binge drinking. There are short term and long term health risks that are involved with binge
drinking. Excessive alcohol use has immediate effects that increase the risk of many harmful
health conditions. These are most often the result of binge drinking and include injuries; motor
crashes, falls, drownings, and burns (World Health Organization 2018). More short term are
violence-related, including homicide, suicide, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence.
(Wechsler et al, 1994). Reproductive health issues such as risky sexual behaviors, unintended
pregnancy, miscarriage, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are also possible consequences of
binge drinking(Naimi TS, 2003). Long term health risks may include chronic diseases such as
high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer of the liver, learning and memory problems, mental
health issues, social problems, and alcohol use disorders. Some could also end up in jail as a
result of binge drinking by causing a serious car crash.
There are a lot of negative effects that come out of binge drinking and it should be
understood that there is a lot of risk involved when one binge drinks. Some members of the
community believe a more refined approach highlighting these health risk factors and
consequences of binge drinking could prove beneficial in a campaign. However, many binge
drinkers are already aware of the health and safety risks and are willing to take the risk. They
believe hospitalization to be a bit unrealistic and highlighting the consequences will not change
their attitudes or behaviors. According to the case study, seventy-five percent of students believe
when they over consume their behavior has negative social consequences. The case study
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emphasizes that opportunity lies in communicating the ignored consequences- damage to
students’ reputation and image. Previous binge drinking campaigns focused on the negatives and
students felt like it was patronizing and talking down to them. However, in this campaign
seventy-eight percent of students liked The Other Hangover campaign and its unique approach.
If you were a key administration official at the University where this campaign was
developed, what concerns would you have about allowing the campaign to be implemented
on campus?
For the students, we would be concerned that the message may be misinterpreted. While
the message of moderation may speak to some, it could potentially encourage others to drink by
seeing posters of people partying and laughing and having a good time with alcohol all over
campus. It could also lower the prestige of a college. For example, a school that is known as a
high caliber academic university may send the wrong message if they put these posters up. To
new students and faculty, seeing the abundant and adamant posters reminding students to drink
in moderation may make one wonder if alcoholism/binge drinking has been a major problem at
this university. Having these posters all over campus may change a school’s reputation to that of
a ‘party school.’ While some students may not mind attending a ‘party school’, there are some
who may take offense to the humorous messaging of the posters, or misinterpret it. For example,
students may criticize the “Flashing” poster and deem it ‘slut shaming’. Some students may take
offense to the “Creep” poster, as it may trigger a victim by reminding them of past trauma, and it
may offend those who feel that they are being called a creep just for drinking excessively.
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In addition to the mixed messages these posters could send to students, it is often the
parents who foot the bill of pricey tuition, and most parents don’t want to see their kid at a school
notorious for its partying. The posters do not discourage drinking, rather they encourage the good
time one could have while drinking the right amount. This could potentially turn some parents
away. However, we believe it is more beneficial to have awareness of an issue that is prevalent
amongst college students than it is to just ignore it, and abstinence-based programs often have
little effect anyway, as was seen with D.A.R.E. (West & O’Neil, 2011).
Beyond concerns of students and parents, there is also the rest of town to worry about.
There tend to be a large number of bars in cities adjacent to college campuses. This is not by
accident, as bar owners take advantage of the roster full of children who are ready to kiss their
youth goodbye and enjoy the full college experience. To put it simply, bars make a lot of money
off of college students. The owners of the bars in town may not be too happy with the abundant
messaging telling students to drink less.
While obviously everyone will not always agree with the messaging used by a public health
campaign, does this particular campaign cross a line and go too far in attempting to be
edgy?
We could see how the ads could be misinterpreted as crossing a line. Some people have a
mantra of “out of sight, out of mind” meaning that they feel if they just ignore something, then it
does not exist. People with this belief may complain that the ads in question were throwing
alcoholism in students’ faces, or that the ads were actually glorifying drinking. However, the
reality is that no college student can ignore the problem of binge drinking. If they are not a big
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drinker, there’s a high chance one of their friends is, and they almost certainly have a friend who
knows a binge-drinker. Rather than hiding from reality, acknowledging and embracing the
prevalence of binge-drinking would do a lot more in terms of helping to lower the amount of
excessive drinking on college campuses. According to the CDC, around 260 Americans die per
day due to excessive alcohol use, so there is no use in turning a blind eye to the issue (2021). We
think this campaign (The Other Hangover) does a great job getting the message across,
especially to the specific demographic they targeted. While it may be socially unacceptable to
discuss the negative aspects of drinking, it is clear that alcohol gives some people a false sense of
confidence - confidence to flirt with that guy they’ve had their eye on, or confidence to get up
and absolutely butcher “Piano Man” at a sticky-floored karaoke bar. These drunken antics are
generally harmless. When the drinking becomes excessive, however, is when people begin to
behave like the subjects in the posters. Whether we like it or not, there are men in this world who
prey on drunk women. There are those who like to get wild and start removing articles of
clothing when they have had too much to drink. Calling attention to these alcohol-induced issues
is not condoning them, and people have to understand that. In fact, we think presenting realistic
situations for college students will be a lot more effective than simply pretending those situations
do not exist. We would compare this to the abstinence-only model of sex education that many
classrooms in America have adopted. It’s unrealistic, and it doesn’t provide any solutions to real
life scenarios that can and will occur in adolescence and young adulthood. Another example
would be the “Just Say No” campaign against drug use that Ronald and Nancy Reagan
championed in the 1980s (History.com, 2017). They led people to believe that drugs like
marijuana were as dangerous as heroin, and this had numerous negative outcomes that still
plague our country today. Much the same, telling students to never consume a drop of alcohol is
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naive, lazy campaigning which will accomplish little. Conversely, being honest with students -acknowledging that they will witness drinking, they may even partake in drinking, and that
drinking can be fun -- is a much more effective way of preventing binge drinking. We do not
believe that the campaign crossed a line, and apparently the students did not either, as 75% of the
study body claimed they liked the ads.
Is the source of the campaign funding, corporations within the alcohol industry itself, a
potential ethical issue?
We believe it is an ethical issue. The key takeaway is that the campaign’s message is not
to discourage drinking altogether, but rather to discourage excessive drinking. Another way to
say this is that the posters encourage drinking moderately. As previously mentioned, a realistic
approach will always be more effective than an abstinence only approach, so the message itself is
not flawed. However, when we consider who is funding this campaign, ethical concerns certainly
arise. Since the ads mostly convey the message that “X was having a great time until they drank
too much” one could definitely argue that the posters themselves do promote drinking. If the
posters were made by college students with no outside support, then they should be allowed to
present the message however they choose. The fact that corporations within the alcohol industry
funded this campaign is worrisome, though. If the corporations thought that the campaign would
truly discourage drinking, they would not fund it. Why would the alcohol industry fund a
campaign whose goal is temperance? Would McDonalds donate to a campaign that advocates to
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turn the world vegan? Corporations within the alcohol industry are extremely wealthy, so their
funding could mean the difference between a lackluster school project and a proficient, wellproduced campaign. Without the funding received from the corporations, the posters might not
have been as effective. Since the corporations provided a large amount of money, the students
were able to make professional quality posters, and a lot of them. The fact that corporations
within the target industry helped to put these posters up on campus is an ethical issue, because it
seems like they are paying to advertise alcohol on campus. The corporations who decided to fund
the campaign must have weighed the pros and cons, and we imagine they would have had an
idea such as the following: “While the posters may speak to some of students and cause them to
order a few less drinks at night, the repetition of seeing the posters over and over again would
definitely send subliminal messages to many kids on campus that they could have a good time if
they go out drinking tonight. Seeing multiple photos of people drinking and having fun all over
campus could both consciously and unconsciously cause students to think about alcohol, and in
the end will likely cause more students to end up buying drinks than if the posters were not up in
the first place.”
What might be some of the unintended messages that community members might take
away from this campaign?
Some of the unintended messages are that the campaign could be interpreted as sexist and
inadvertently convey notions of “victim blaming” especially for women. There are two ads in the
campaign that can potentially come across as sexist. There is one ad that says “Before you got
wasted you weren’t known as the creep.” This perpetuates the idea that men are creeps when
involved in binge drinking, and that men behave inappropriately. There is another ad in the Other
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Hangover that reads “Even though you were drunk, this still happened” where a woman is
making out with a man at a bar. This portrays that women might tend to act seductively when
engaged in binge drinking. Another unintended message here seems to be that a woman
responsible for whatever harm comes to her, blaming it on her alcohol consumption. Similarly,
blaming a man’s predatory behavior on his drunkenness may send the same unintended message
towards women.
Another more prominent example of a campaign inciting victim blaming is “Control
Tonight.” One of the ads in the series warns about letting your friends drink too much. It
features a young woman’s legs sprawled on a bathroom floor, with her underwear around her
ankles. The slogan “She didn’t want to do it, but she couldn’t say no” is followed by a warning
that if you let your friends drink, they will make bad decisions and ultimately be sexually
assaulted. The campaign, which aims to tackle teen binge drinking, has instead taken an uncouth
stance that if you or your friends drink too much, you will get raped; essentially just propagating
the overtly sexist and cave man maxim, “she was asking for it”, with an added ‘you have been
warned’ (Andric, 2012). The message here seems to hold the woman in the PSA responsible for
whatever harm comes to her, blaming it on her alcohol consumption instead of the people who
want to do her harm. In reality, rape is something that happens in many different and sinister
non-alcohol related scenarios. Not only this, but the “she was asking for it” mentality is
completely divorced from the simple fact that rape is a deliberate and violent act committed by a
rapist. Instead of pointing the finger at them, we should be providing more support for victims
of rape and investing more into educating young men about the meaning of consent. It is also
found that men’s attendance at “drinking venues”—that is, bars and parties—was a better
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predictor of their sexual aggression than simply binge-drinking or enthusiastic attitudes toward
casual sex (Fetters, 2019) .
The Other Hangover and their ads that can be seen as sexist and victim blaming will
make some upset. The ads bring attention to the issue of binge drinking and the students can
relate to the situations, so they are acceptable. However, the campaign should instead use their
platform to discuss consent in relation to alcohol use. This approach could help the campaign
avoid some potential criticism.
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Conclusion
After reviewing the case study on “The Other Hangover” we think it is a logical
campaign for college campuses. Instead of sweeping the fact that college students are going to
drink under the rug, it brings attention and awareness to excessive drinking. However,
conflicting views may look at this campaign and not like that it encourages drinking. Instead of
highlighting shame and regret, some people may like to see it focus more on the health risks
associated with binge drinking, or driving under the influence. The specific attention of this
campaign may encourage some students to drink less and it may not change a thing for other
students. This shows that students are going to partake in the college experience, which includes
the parties and alcohol consumption. The question is: Will the campaign be enough to make
these students change when they get into peer pressure situations? Will these students say no to
filling their cup up one more time to avoid becoming the “creep” from the posters plastered all
over campus? From this case study, we learned that this campaign may not change anything for
some students, but it could be exactly what another student needs to avoid overdoing it.
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