Young people who begin drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to develop alcohol problems later in life than those who wait until they are 21.
Dr. David Jernigan, an APHA member and Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, says alcohol brands disproportionately target youths. Photo by CAMY
The problem is that alcohol is targeted increasingly — and often primarily — to those who are not of legal age to drink, according to a panel hosted Wednesday by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at George Washington University.
“What our current work finds is that alcohol ads continue to be so many places that young people are — the magazines they read, the music they listen to, the movies they watch and of course in the digital space,” said David Jernigan, the center’s director and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Let’s talk to our kids about alcohol marketing, not just drinking. Let’s recognize that we’re expecting kids to swim as well as fish would swim in a polluted stream, and we need to teach them about the pollution.”
Jernigan presented startling new data on the 10 most popular alcohol brands by ages 13-15, 16-18 and 19-20, which he released at the APHA 140th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The center found that on television, magazines and radio, alcohol ads disproportionately targetto youth audiences and on social media channels, popular alcohol brands display underage people advertising their products.
But egregious marketing isn’t the only threat to youth alcohol abuse. Emmy Award-winning television reporter Andrea McCarren says public backlash is just as problematic. McCarren and WUSA News (a CBS affiliate) collected footage of teens carrying out beer from a Washington, D.C., liquor store, which had been purchased without IDs. The station then broadcasted a contentious follow-up conversation between McCarren and the store owner, which incited intense negative reaction from viewers.
In fact, one of McCarren’s children stayed home from school due to bullying from classmates.
“Never in my 27-year career have I felt under such threat, and been on the receiving end of such hostility, until I tapped into reporting on underage drinking,” McCarren said.
Visit CAMY online to learn more about the marketing practices of the alcohol industry on America’s young people.
3 comments
Ben Kelley says:
Nov 30, 2012
Targeting kids and young adults with marketing of unsafe, unhealthy products is, unhappily, a commonplace in our economy. Corporations manufacturing a range of hazardous products – ATVs, alcohol, tobacco, cars, guns, junk food, you name it – spend fortunes on such marketing. It’s a two-pronged process: first, it increases product sales to a vulnerable population and second, it snares and addicts the child to the product so that she/he becomes a lifelong user and thus a dependable, predictable source of sales revenues.
Corporations oppose any sort of regulation meant to rein in these assaults on public health. As a result, we are irreparably harming the health of our youth and, as they age, our adults. And we are vastly increasing the cost of medical care resulting from such harm. All this in the name of “free enterprise.” Crazy, isn’t it?
Afri says:
Mar 26, 2013
I agree that public htlaeh serves a vital role in providing relevant, up to date htlaeh information to individuals that facilitates people making informed decisions. I disagree with the statement that public htlaeh censors science and don’t understand what is meant by self-imposed workforce shortage? Most of our medical information comes from the top medical entities in this country like the CDC, NIH and many others. Public htlaeh could play a vital role in providing information on the changes, benefits and other relevant information regarding the AFA, although I have not seen much on this as of yet. With the Internet, and access to medical information from many different sources, people can at least inform themselves in order to make htlaeh decisions that fit their lifestyle, budget, etc. Most employees of public htlaeh are htlaeh professionals, RNs, MSN’s and at least college graduates. I see the AFA as a needed and positive first step in changing our medical care system for the better.
Devin Crothers says:
May 9, 2013
Annually there are about 5,000 people under the age of 21 that die from alcohol-related injuries, some of those being vehicle crashes, homicides and even suicides. This should not be taken lightly. It is dealing with the lives of children and the lives of others that are involved in accidents related to underage drinking. Public health plays a huge part in educating youth about alcohol and the harm it can cause to underage drinkers. Not only should public health professionals educate children about the effects that alcohol can have on them, there needs to be more education about the marketing that alcohol companies use. Alcohol companies dump so much money into their ADs, billboards and commercials to make the product desirable. The placement of theses advertisements are also key in their marketing. They purposely place their advertisements where they know the younger crowds will see it. When young kids see celebrities drinking alcohol, movies which show people intoxicated and even older friends and family who are involved with alcohol it makes them wish they could have it.
In 2011 there was a study that was done by the National Survey of Drug Use and Health which found that about 9.7 million Americans between the ages of 12-20 reported current alcohol consumption. This is a large group of kids who have admitted to underage drinking so obviously there is a lot more public educating that public health providers can be doing to help lower those numbers. Not only should Public Health have a stronger presence in the fight to lower underage drinking, schools also need to take part in education their students on the effects of alcohol and the harm it can cause. Commercials are on TV all throughout the day, Alcoholic beverage commercials are produced so that you want to have their product. When we watch these commercials on TV, the women are beautiful and the men are handsome and everyone looks like they’re having a blast. However, Kids see this and they think that is how alcohol makes you look like or act. The commercials do their job in that they make the beverages desirable. These children don’t know the difference form commercial life versus real life. Nowadays there are alcohol ADs in magazines that are available to people who are underage . There are advertisements on billboards available for everyone to see and they’re also on television. They are everywhere. This is exactly what the companies want- they want to get people to see their product, desire it, buy it and hopefully become addicted to their product. If that happens they have a lifetime customer. It is hard to make policies against these companies because they are so rich and powerful, so instead we should use education a way to fight marketing and advertisements. Public Health educators should use harsh images and real stories which actually show what can happen when you participate in underage drinking, like drunk driving accidents, addiction, health problems, etcetera. There can be curriculum placed in health education which can educate student on what alcohol is and how it effects your body. If schools were required to teach students about abusing drugs and alcohol and the damage they can cause, I believe that children might stop using these products at such a young age. As stated above the best way to catch peoples attention is through real stories, like showing children pictures of drunk driving accidents, or hearing real stories of accidents from someone who was directly or indirectly involved. Another way to educate young people and keeping them safe is to provide them with real life information about alcohol consumption. They should be taught in an unbias way. Children should also be taught the difference of alcohol use versus alcohol abuse. A major part of educating them on this subject is to teach them effective ways to reduce the potential harm that can result from the abuse of alcohol. If we show children what alcohol is, how it can effect your mind and body and stress the importance of alcohol safety, hopefully it will help lower the amount of underage drinkers.