Where was the social norms marketing approach first implemented?
In the 1989-90 academic year, the health promotion staff at Northern Illinois University (NIU) became the first to use social marketing methods to inform students thatcontrary to what they believedthe majority of their peers were in fact moderate and safe drinkers. Annual self-report health assessment surveys and other data gathered at NIU over a multi-year period showed dramatic increases in the percentage of students who correctly perceived the moderate campus norm, along with significant concurrent increases in safer drinking and abstaining, as well as decreases in alcohol-related injuries.
