Alcohol advertising
From Drug Rehab Wiki
Alcohol advertising has long been controversial. First amendments rights conflict with societal concerns about promoting alcohol use to adolescents. Over the years the controversy has resulted in temporary bans on television advertising and changes in how companies present their alcohol.
Many advertisements now include the message drink responsibly.
The impact of alcohol advertising on adolescents has been studied by many different research groups and medical organizations.
RAND STUDY ON IMPACT OF ALCOHOL ADVERTISING ON ADOLESCENTS
The impact that advertising can have on a child is an important element to study to understand whether or not it influences a child to drink as a youth or later in life. According to a RAND Corporation study, when children are exposed to such advertisements during adolescence, it influences both beer drinking and their intentions to drink a year later.
To complete the study, researchers looked at children in the sixth and seventh grades who had been exposed to alcohol advertising at high levels. Advertisements were found in television, magazines, in-store displays and promotion items such as T-shirts and posters. These adolescents were 50 percent more likely to drink and 36 percent more likely to intend to drink than those who had been exposed to very little advertising.
In previous research studies, it was determined that adolescents on average are exposed to at least 245 television ads for alcoholic beverages every year. These ads may or may not promote drinking. The RAND study took the examination a little further in that it also asked about advertising in magazines, radio and elsewhere and if they owned any promotional alcoholic items.
“Parents may be aware that advertising may promote drinking among early adolescents,” said Rebecca L. Collins, a RAND senior behavioral scientist and lead author of the study, in a company release. “We did a previous study that found that children as young as fourth grade were very familiar with alcohol advertising and can tell you slogans and brand names.
“Parents often think they don't have to worry about their kids drinking before they get to high school, but sixth grade — or even before then — is the time to talk with children about alcohol marketing techniques, as well as drinking,” Collins added. “Getting kids to think critically about ads may lessen any effects the ads have.”
The RAND study, Early Adolescent Exposure to Alcohol Advertising and its Relationship to Underage Drinking is based on a survey of 1,786 South Dakota sixth graders. The survey questioned students about their exposure to advertising in the first year. In the second year, the same students were asked about drinking intentions and behavior. South Dakota is among the top ten states in terms of binge drinking among adolescents.
While this is the youngest group to be studied longitudinally on alcohol advertising, RAND suggests that by the time children are in eighth grade, 50 percent have already experimented with alcohol. Those who reported they had not experimented had witnessed the effects of alcohol on their friends. Children were more likely to drink if a friend approved of the drinking and a parent did not monitor the child.
Television ads do play a key factor as they appear during sports programming. Promotional items also played a big part in the advertising influence on these children. The RAND study found nearly 19 percent of children who owned such an item were nearly twice as likely to drink as their peers.
