Influence of Wine Label Imagery: Eye-Tracking Evidence and Regulatory Implications

The visual design of alcohol beverage packaging plays a crucial role in shaping consumer perceptions and purchase decisions, yet regulations in many countries are relatively lax. Guidelines often focus on the inclusion of health warnings rather than overall label or packaging design, giving producers considerable freedom. In recent years, wine manufacturers have increasingly featured images on their labels that are unrelated to the product, most notably animals such as mammals, birds and insects, a strategy likely intended to exploit attentional bias. The present study examines how such imagery on wine labels influences consumer attention and memorisation.

A within-subject experimental design was conducted with 93 participants, each exposed to two conditions: wine labels that feature either animals or inanimate objects. Attention was measured using an eye-tracking method in a laboratory setting at a French university. Each participant viewed 16 different wine bottles, resulting in 1488 observations. After exposure, label recognition was assessed via a declarative method.

Wine labels featuring animals captured attention more rapidly, sustained attention for longer and were better recognised than labels featuring inanimate objects.

The findings suggest that, beyond mandating health warnings on alcohol packaging, policymakers should consider stricter regulations on the visual content of labels to limit the persuasive power of alcohol marketing.