At Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers led by behavioral scientist Darren Mays are testing whether carefully crafted messages about alcohol and breast cancer can change how young women think about their drink choices. The study, unfolding across five research centers in the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium, represents a first-of-its-kind effort to counter decades of alcohol marketing that has downplayed or ignored the drink's well-documented link to cancer risk.
The timing feels urgent. Only 13% of women recognize that regular alcohol consumption increases cancer risk, according to a national survey commissioned by Ohio State researchers. That awareness gap matters enormously because the science is settled: regular drinking raises the risk for at least seven forms of cancer, yet nearly half of Americans remain unaware of this connection. As summer approaches and Memorial Day celebrations kick off peak drinking season, the gap between what people know and what medical evidence shows has never felt more consequential.
Mays and his team began by holding focus groups with women ages 18 to 25 at five universities, asking them what messages about alcohol and breast cancer might actually resonate. The researchers used artificial intelligence to generate and test message concepts, refining the strongest options through iterative testing. The result: a set of plain-language, relatable countermarketing messages designed to compete with the polished advertising that surrounds alcohol at every turn. Now comes the harder part—testing whether these messages actually change behavior.
Up to 500 young women have been randomly assigned to receive either countermarketing messages about alcohol and breast cancer risk or general cancer prevention messages unrelated to alcohol. Participants complete daily smartphone surveys about their alcohol use, and some wear sensors that detect drinking. The study does not include cancer screening or diagnosis; it's purely about whether information can shift choices.
"If people don't know alcohol is linked to breast cancer risk, they can't weigh that risk when they make choices," Mays said. "We're building messages with young women, then testing whether those messages can improve what people know and help reduce drinking as a long-term strategy for cancer prevention." The approach mirrors decades of successful tobacco prevention work, where messages that explained health risks and called out deceptive marketing actually changed what people believed and how they behaved.
What makes this study distinctive is its focus on young women specifically—the age group most targeted by alcohol marketing and most likely to absorb misleading messages about drinking's safety. The research also acknowledges a hard truth about public health: knowing facts isn't always enough to change behavior. Effective countermarketing requires meeting people where they are, speaking their language, and addressing not just what they know but what they're being told by the multi-billion-dollar alcohol industry.
Mays, who also leads tobacco prevention research at Ohio State's College of Medicine, sees clear parallels. "When messages explain health risks and call out deceptive marketing, they can change what people believe," he said. "We want to see whether that can work for alcohol and breast cancer prevention, too." If the study shows promise, these messages could eventually reach young women through channels where alcohol advertising already thrives, offering a counterweight to decades of marketing that has normalized drinking without acknowledging its costs. For now, the focus is on the science of persuasion—and whether truth, told compellingly, can compete with the most sophisticated marketing apparatus in consumer culture.