What is Alcohol-Free Advertising

Governmental regulations and consumer trends towards healthier lifestyle are leading the change to new alcohol-free. However, alcohol consumption is growing, and some critical voices raise concerns about effects of alcohol-free advertisements on their alcoholic counterparts. Yet, little research on alcohol-free advertisement has been developed. This research aims to find out how alcohol-free beer advertisements affect ethical perceptions, brand evaluations and purchasing intention. To do this, an experimental design with two versions of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer advertisements was performed. In addition, an eye-tracking experiment was developed to reveal which elements attract the attention of the viewer. The results of the analysis performed show that alcohol-free advertisements seem to encourage permissive attitudes towards unethical practices, but not affect brand attitude or beer purchase intention. In turn, eye-tracking analysis revealed that consumers seem to focus on the brand of the advertisement rather than on the specific characteristics of the alcohol-free version.