The study looks at the:

ability of printed normative messages to influence conservation behavior among hotel guests. While prior research has shown that social norms can both guide and spur behavior, there are a number of questions about the generality of the effects, the impact of aligning descriptive and injunctive norms, and the relative impact of normative information about a specific versus general referent group.

In other words can written messages make us not ask for new bath towels when we stay at a hotel.

See also:

• Mailshot triggers reduced drinking among concerned problem drinkers

(via The Research Digest Blog)

In the UK and elsewhere, social marketing is becoming a major feature of health-improvement strategies. Based on marketing techniques developed for commercial sales, social marketing uses imagery (eg television, magazines, internet and billboards) and phrases (eg radio adverts and slogans) specifically aimed at target groups (eg young people), typically to increase their positive health behaviours. Both national organisations and local health services routinely develop such interventions, often with little evidence of specifically how each campaign will affect public health. In general, such campaigns are regarded as potentially beneficial and possibly ineffective, but rarely are they considered dangerous to health. However, with access to powerful media such as the internet, professional eye-catching graphics and demographic targeting techniques unimaginable only a decade ago, such views need reassessing. In this report, we highlight the potential for social marketing campaigns to have negative repercussions, using cannabis prevention as an example.

The article goes on to argue that commercial organisations that invest in social marketing do so after testing their efficacy.  They say that if governments and health promotion agencies are to use the techniques they too need to put in the research on both the positive and negative outcomes from their campaigns.