Alcohol Ads Still Reach Too Many Teens

Despite regulation aimed at preventing this, the number of alcohol commercials promoting beer and spirits still air at times when most teenagers are watching TV, a new study by experts at the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, and the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) has found. In other words, teenage viewing times were directly correlated with the number of alcohol ads that aired on the majority of TV networks. The new study will appear in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health, ScienceDaily informs.

“Alcohol advertisers have pledged to avoid audiences made up of more than 30 percent underage viewers – such as children's programming. However, many other shows have adolescent appeal. This research suggests that ads are aimed at groups that include a disproportionate number of teens and that the alcohol industry's voluntary self-monitoring is not working to reduce adolescent exposure to ads,” Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Associate Professor David H. Jernigan says.

The expert, who is also the Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, adds that this investigation is the first one to date to analyze the exact correlations that exist between ad placement and teen cable TV viewership. The fact that no other such research has been conducted until now is very worrying, because cable TV attracts as much as 95 percent of all alcohol ads. Previous studies have demonstrated that an average teen is exposed to more than 200 alcohol ads per year.

“This study did not examine whether alcohol advertisers are intentionally overexposing adolescents. The alcohol industry has consistently denied actively targeting teens, and our study isn't designed to test that claim. However, the ultimate effect of their advertising strategies, intentional or not, appears to be greater exposure than might be expected if adults were the sole targets of ads,” Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA Assistant Professor of Pediatrics Dr. Paul J. Chung shares. The expert is also a RAND Corp. senior natural scientist, and the lead author of the journal paper.

The new investigation was funded mainly by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as with grants from Pfizer, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, all directed to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University. The study covered about 600,000 alcohol ads, aired in the US between 2001 and 2006, as well as their air times. Other factors that may have influenced the ad placement were also considered, but they were found to have little statistical importance to the study.