Alcohol Advertising and Youth – Paper

Alcohol Advertising and Youth Jessica SOC1001: Introduction to Sociology December 18, 2011 Alcohol Advertising and Youth Researchers are investigating alcohol advertisement and youth in today’s society because advertising is leading to positive beliefs about alcohol causing drinking to increase. This is a problem that needs serious attention and needs to be dealt with. National as well as state-level longitudinal studies in the United States have found that exposure to alcohol advertising in various venues – including broadcast, print, outdoor, point-ofpurchase and sporting events – can predict onset of drinking and heavier drinking among young people (Jernigan, Ostroff and Ross, 2005) Camy’s (2005) analyses rely on statistical sources and measurement concepts standard to the advertising media planning and research field, but to our knowledge rarely accessed by public health researchers. They are based on the merging of two sets of commercially available databases: occurrence tracking (for brand advertising) and audience estimates (for various demographic groups). (Jernigan, 2005) The data are calculated at the local market and national levels and are reported using the advertising industry standard measures of audience composition, gross impressions, and gross rating points. (Jernigan, 2005) In the journal, it states two compositions: Audience and magazines. Audience composition refers to the percentage of the audience that meets different demographic criteria. For instance, young people ages 12-20 are approximately 15% of US population aged 12 and above. (Jernigan, 2005) A magazine audience composition of more than 15% 1220-year-olds will be likely to create the situation where youth are more likely per capita to see the magazine than adults over 21 years, the legal drinking age in the United States. In analyzing magazine advertising alcoholic beverages in 2003, Camy found that young people aged 12-20 were exposed per capita to 48% more beer ads, 20% more distilled spirits ads, 92% more ads for â€Å"alcopops† and alcoholic lemonades such as Bacardi Silver and Smirnoff Ice, and 66% fewer wine ads than adults 21 and above (most likely because wine markets tend to appeal more to older adults) (Jernigan, 2005) Magazine advertisement was analyzed by gender. This analysis revealed that girls were far more overexposed compared to women of legal drinking age than boys were when compared to men of legal drinking age. Jernigan, 2005) Girls saw 68% more beer ads and 95% more ads for alcopops per capita than women, while boys saw 29% more beer ads and 37% more alcopops ads than men (Jernigan, 2005) Television – particularly national broadcast – offers advertisers less precision with which to reach their desired audiences than either magazines or radio. (Jernigan, 2005) Between 2001 and 2003, alcohol companies broadcast 761,347 product ads on US national and local broadcast and national cable television. Jernigan, 2005) On the internet, traffic to 55 alcohol company websites was tracked for CAMY. Many of these sites feature content such as video games, free music downloads or music videos, alcohol-themed sexy screensavers, and viral marketing. (Jernigan, 2005) In the last six months of 2003, the season of heaviest alcohol advertising (Jernigan, 2005). It is hard to think of a good solution because the advertising in going to be revealed and I believe that teens will view them because it is something â€Å"interesting†. A lot of youth view it as being a cool thing to see and advertising is going to be out there for all to see, read or hear. There could be a lot of solutions to try, but would any stick? That is the question. Personally, advertising is a terrible issue that really needs to be looked into deeply and taking very seriously because it is causing more harm every day. References Jernigan, David H. , Joshua Ostroff, and Craig Ross. â€Å"Alcohol Advertising and Youth. † Journal of Public Health Policy 23. 3 (2005): 312-25. Web. 19 Dec. 2011.