Table 2.

Summary of themes

Theme	Description
Prerequisites to effectiveness	Participants believed that labels had to be credible, personally relevant and contain useful information to capture interest and attention.
Perceived aversiveness	Participants reacted to the perceived aversiveness of the label information, this was regarded as the extent to which a label elicited a negative emotional response (e.g., worry/concern, disgust). For some labels this was negligible, while others induced strong reactions. Perceptions of aversiveness appeared to be influenced by personal experience.
Self-exemption	For most labels (including those that participants considered serious in nature, e.g., increased risk of diabetes), participants could provide a self-exempting rationale.
Perceived potential to reduce personal sugary drinks consumption	Participants appraised the potential of the label to produce real change in their motivation to reduce consumption, for example, it may: prompt a participant to reconsider an SSB purchase; motivate reduced SSB consumption; encourage switching to a different product; or not motivate any change. This theme was strongly related to the aforementioned themes such that a label perceived strongly across all other themes was likely to be perceived to have potential to reduce consumption, however, a label that was perceived strongly on only one or two themes (such as only prerequisites to effectiveness) would not necessarily be appraised by participants to have real potential to reduce consumption.