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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the cost and benefit of a community-based alcohol consumption control program during the Buddhist Lent (BL) period in terms of social return on investment (SROI).

The research team evaluated the program in four selected villages from four regions using standard SROI. Relevant stakeholders were involved in the evaluation design and program impact map construction. Data, including costs, were collected from literatures, official documents, stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions. Alcohol abstinence and related data during and after the 2015 BL period were gathered from a survey questionnaire. The SROI ratio presented the social benefits compared against the total social investment.

The program was effective in producing a greater social value (2.7–5.9 times) than the cost of investment in every village. Cost savings from alcohol consumption constituted a major proportion of the program’s value.

The community-based alcohol consumption control program during BL can provide value for investment. Information from this study can be used by policy makers in their decision to continue or scale up the program. The SROI approach mainly relies on stakeholders that may present a bias; however, further study such as social cost-benefit analysis could provide additional insights.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of a national alcohol-prevention social marketing campaign in Thailand, investigating specifically the competing forces of the campaign vis-à-vis alcohol advertising.

Based on repeated cross-sectional, nationally representative data from the 2011-2014 Annual Survey of Buddhist Lent Campaign Evaluation (N = 10,133), a generalized ordered logit (partial proportional odds) model is used. The outcome of interest is self-reported alcohol consumption during the campaign period, compared to before. The main explanatory variables include exposure to the campaign and exposure to alcohol advertising.

Results show that exposure to the campaign and exposure to alcohol advertising positively and negatively influence alcohol consumption, respectively. Compared to those with one type of exposure and those without any exposure to alcohol-related messages, drinkers with exposure to both the campaign and alcohol advertising are estimated to have the highest probability of drinking reduction during the campaign period.

The paper highlights the importance of accounting for a countervailing force (in this case, alcohol advertising) in campaign evaluation studies. It also suggests that alcohol-control social marketing be continued and that the government should disseminate alcohol-prevention messages in a balanced manner, ensuring that both costs and benefits of alcohol consumption are well-understood by the intended audience.