Alcohol - Advertising

By Jerry Price - Mar 13, 2006 -

“Advertising to young people is more than just appealing to existing drinkers. Rather, youth marketing is the business of creating drinkers and brand allegiances. Contrary to the industry’s rhetoric about advertising only to a market of confirmed drinkers, some marketing practices indicate a conscious effort to make alcohol a way of life for people nearing the legal drinking age. Just as a 45-year-old person who abstains is not considered part of the current drinker-market, 18- to 21-year-old abstainers should also not be included. Nevertheless, the alcohol industry either considers them drinkers by virtue of their age or hopes to make them so.”

Michael Jacobson, Robert Atkins, and George Hacker, The Booze Merchants (Washington: CSPI Books, 1983), 49.

In a study conducted by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, researchers found that “Between 2001 and 2003, 78 percent of underage youth between the ages of 12 and 20 saw television ads purchased by alcohol companies to discourage underage drinking. Yet, on average, they saw only nine of these ads over the entire three-year period . . . In comparison, 91 percent of 12- to 20-year-olds saw an average of 779 product ads selling alcohol over the same time period. Alcohol company ‘responsibility’ ads about drunk driving and safety fared slightly better than underage drinking ads, with 82 percent of youth seeing an average of 20 alcohol company ads about drinking safely or not drinking and driving.”

Other findings include:

  • Alcohol ads outnumbered industry “responsibility” ads by nearly 32 to 1*. Between 2001 and 2003, alcohol companies placed 761,347 product ads on television, versus only 24,161 “responsibility” ads. On a year-by-year basis, the gap between product advertising and responsibility advertising widened from 2001 to 2002, then narrowed again in 2003.
  • Alcohol companies spent 27 times more on product ads than on “responsibility” ads*. Over the period from 2001 to 2003, alcohol companies spent more than $2.5 billion on alcohol product ads for television and less than $92 million on television “responsibility” ads. An additional $148 million of companies’ television ad dollars went to civic, corporate, and other types of community advertising—still more money than was spent on “responsibility” advertising.
  • Overall, underage youth ages 12 to 20 were 96 times more likely to see an alcohol product ad than an industry ad against underage drinking*. Underage youth of this age group were also 43 times more likely to see an alcohol product ad than an alcohol company ad about safety or drinking and driving.
  • “Responsibility” advertising was uneven among companies*. Four alcohol companies placed responsibility ads in all three years studied, although 31 placed product ads in all three years.

Alcohol Product Commercials Overwhelm ‘Responsibility Message (Georgetown University), July 20, 2005

  • Research reports show that exposure to alcohol advertising shapes young adolescents’ attitudes toward alcohol, their intentions to drink, and underage drinking behavior.
  • Alcohol advertising appeared during all 15 of the top teen television shows in 2002. Alcohol advertisers spent 60 percent more to advertise on these shows in 2002, including Survivor, Fear Factor, and That ’70s Show, than in 2001.
  • Alcohol advertisers spent $990 million (22 percent more) for TV ads in 2002 and placed 39 percent more alcohol ads on TV than in 2001.
  • Twenty-two percent of the alcohol ads aired on TV in 2002 were more likely to be seen by youth 12-20 years of age than adults. These 66,218 ads were also more likely to be seen by youth ages 12-20 than by young adults ages 21-34.
  • According to a 1998 advertising agency study, youths six to 17 years of age identified Budweiser’s cartoon ads as their favorite, more popular than any ads for Pepsi, Barbie, Snickers, or Nike.
  • A 1996 survey of children ages nine to 11 found that children were more familiar with Budweiser’s television frogs than with Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger, the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, or Smokey Bear.
  • American young people heard more radio advertising for beer and distilled spirits than did people of legal drinking age in 2001 and 2002.
    Magazine ads for alcoholic beverages reached more youth 12 – 20 years of age than adult readers in 2001.
  • High intensity point-of-sale advertising is common in convenience stores and combination gas station/convenience markets where 75 percent of teenagers shop weekly. Alcohol marketing at the point of sale (interior and exterior signage, floor displays and alcohol-branded functional objects such as counter change mats with an alcohol company logo) often includes low height alcohol ads that are in the sight line of children and adolescents as opposed to adults.

Alcohol advertising and Youth (Marin Institute) [Accessed October 31, 2005]

“Miller Brewing Company and Skyy Spirits teamed up to create Skyy Sport—a carbonated, fruit-flavored, low-carb malt beverage targeted at active lifestyle consumers. Recent ads feature models sporting athletic gear and Skyy Sport. This product and its ad contradict the Beer Institute Advertising and Marketing Code and ignore a couple of dangerous effects of alcohol use—slower motor skills and dehydration. Alcohol plus exercise is a recipe for a trip to the hospital, not a trip to the gym. Does Miller really want people to drink Skyy Sport and jump in the ring?”

Alcohol: the Next Sports Drink? (Marin Institute) [Accessed October 31, 2005]

Further Learning

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