This article examines how teenagers perceive a show that is both educational and entertaining. In classrooms, 970 students viewed and evaluated one of two videos of a commercial television program featuring an anti-alcohol message. Overall, the sample assessed the programs favorably, finding the messages interesting, credible and understandable. Firsthand experience with alcohol predicted variations in the perception of an anti-alcohol message, while contact with others who use alcohol did not. Regression analysis showed personal experience with alcohol had a strong relationship to interest, a modest relationship to credibility, but no significant relationship to knowledge. In contrast, social contact with those who use alcohol often (i.e. knowing friends and family members who drink) was not significantly associated with the perceptions of an alcohol message on television. Such results suggest that those creating and using mass-media health messages effectively must be aware of the actual firsthand experiences of their audiences.