alcohol commercials, underage drinkers
Recent research has shown that underage drinkers are usually strongly affected by alcohol commercials. According to the study underage drinkers were 300% more likely to pick brands of alcohol which they had previously seen alcohol commercials for. The study was conducted by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, which is at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Boston University School of Public Health. David Jernigan, Ph.D, and the CAMY director as well as one of the authors of the study, reported that “There is a link between exposure to brand-specific advertising and youth choices about alcohol, independent of other factors.” The lead study author and the Virtual Media Resources President, who also has an MBA and Ph.D, Craig Ross, stated “Taken together, these studies strengthen the case for a relationship between brand-specific alcohol advertising among underage youth and brand-specific consumption. As alcohol continues to devastate so many young lives, youth exposure to alcohol advertising should be reduced.”
More than 1,000 individuals who were aged 13 years old to 20 years old took part in the study on underage drinking and exposure to alcohol commercials, and this exposure occurred in magazines as well as on television commercials. The study showed that underage drinkers were more likely to remember the brands and products that were featured in alcohol commercials that the teens were exposed to. Boston University School of Public Health researcher Michael B. Seigel, who holds an MD and MPH and who co authored the recent study, observed that “The question now becomes what do alcohol advertisers do with this information, given the consequences of alcohol consumption in underage youth.”
