Alcohol Advertising Exposure to alcohol advertising is an everyday occurrence. Alcohol advertising is persuasive not only to adults but to those who are too young to buy alcohol legally. Although parents and peers have a large impact on youth decisions to drink, marketing also has a significant impact by influencing the attitudes of parents and peers and helping to create an environment that promotes underage drinking. Alcohol companies focus billions of dollars on advertising their products and still claim that the effect is minimal. I pose a few questions that are; who are the targets of alcohol advertising? How does alcohol advertising affect the people targeted by alcohol companies? Finally what actions are being taken to …show more content…
The effects that alcohol advertising induces on its targets are outrageously tragic. More than 40 percent of teenage deaths are caused by motor vehicles. More than half of those are alcohol related. Alcohol is implicated in at least half of the other major causes of death for young people, such as suicides, homicides, and accidents. Alcohol use is often a factor in many of the other problems afflicting this age group, such as teenage pregnancy, date rape, suicide, assault, and vandalism. At least three of ten adolescents today have serious alcohol problems. A 1996 study showed that children ages nine to 11 were more familiar with Budweiser's television frogs than Kellogg's Tony the Tiger, the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and Smokey the Bear. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth found that, in 2001, youth in the United States were 93 times more likely to see an ad promoting alcohol than an industry ad discouraging underage drinking. In fact, compared to youth, adults age 21 and over were more then twice as likely to see advertising discouraging underage drinking. A USA Today survey found that teens say that ads have a greater influence on their desire to drink in general than on their desire to buy a particular brand of alcohol. Eighty percent of the
Simply remarking that such a decision is dangerous fails to suffice as concrete evidence of the negative effects of underage alcohol consumption, and so statistical evidence must be given. Approximately five thousand underage drinkers die each year; the most prevalent cause is, not surprisingly, motor vehicle accidents. What many do not understand is what other factors constitute the other approximately three thousand; sixteen hundred to homicides, that is, murders and other deliberate killings, as well as 300 to suicide, usually caused by an exacerbation of underlying depression or other psychological difficulties. The remaining thousand are usually caused by such grisly circumstances as falling, burning, and drowning. While this may seem a relatively small number in the vast amounts of the twelve to twenty year old age group, estimates are that within the past month one-quarter of underage persons used alcohol, while two-thirds of those were binge drinkers. Not only does underage drinking increase the chance of dying in related incidents it encourages other destructive behaviors: engage in sexual activities, carry a plethora of illegal substances, and correlations have even been found that links underage drinking to poor performance in school. Other observations have been made that negatively link underage drinking with mental
The question, "Is alcohol advertising the cause of underage drinking?" seems to flow through the minds of many American families. The answer to the question largely depends upon the families view on drinking in general. Some homes encourage drinking every once in a while, for social purposes; while others condemn it all together. The topic is very controversial with several factors weighing in such as religion, family background, and health. Despite the differing views, statistics have shown that underage drinking has reached a new height this past year. What is the cause of this rise in adolescent
Youth exposure to alcohol advertising on U.S. television increased 71 percent between 2001 and 2009 (The Center).
Children tend to absorb the contents with a sense of judgment. This is because their curiosity sometimes leads to terrible consequences, in this case, the addiction to alcohol. “A national study … concluded that greater exposure to alcohol advertising contributes to an increase in drinking among underage youth. Specifically, for each additional ad a young person saw … he or she drank 1% more. For each additional dollar per capita spent on alcohol advertising in a local market … young people drank 3% more” (Alcohol Advertising and Youth). Therefore, the commercials do have a great impact to the number of drinking adolescents, since the number of underage alcohol consumption rises as advertisement rates rise. If such commercials continue to display on the media without any types of appropriate-content filters, the number of teenage alcoholics will continue to rise as years pass by. As a result, we must greatly reduce the number of commercials referring to alcohol products, to minimize the possibility to create future drinkers under the legal age.
Regarding this time period as well, teenagers of the 21st century rely on social media and advertisements in their decision making (Hopkins n.pag.). When a troubled teen has personal problems, they seek shelter on drugs and alcohol to get themselves distracted until they ponder about situations that they have seen on advertisements to help them forget or efface their problems (Hopkins n.pag.). As statistics show, those who are around the ages of twelve to twenty are more exposed to alcohol advertising than adults over the age of 35 (Hopkins n.pag.). Seventy percent of what industries advertise is more likely to be seen by teenagers instead of adults who are actually in the legal age to drink (Hopkins n.pag.). Multiple advertisements forget to emphasize the dangers of drinking in their articles or magazines.
Also, Minors are exposed to alcohol advertisements daily. Alcohol advertisements are entertaining and traced with subliminal messages encouraging alcohol consumption for us all to
The abuse of alcohol among teenagers in the United States is universal and destructive. Teenagers believe drinking to be the cool that they must do to fit in with a crowd or become the popular one, when they do not realize all it brings is harm. Underage drinking has been one of the largest unsolved problems in history. Although many ideas have been made and put into practice, like raising the drinking age, harsher punishments, and, at one point, banning it all-together, nothing people do can stop teens from getting their hands on this dangerous beverage.
Trying to fit in is not the only problem that causes underage alcohol consumption; advertising aimed at underage drinkers also contributes to the predicament.
Even though the drinking age is 21 there is still a problem with underage drinkers. When teens get their hands on the alcohol they don’t understand the dangers of it. Therefore, they are careless and feel as if they are invisible and no one can stop them. Luckily, rates of adolescent alcohol use have fallen since the 1980s, but the
The use of alcohol is an overpowering issue of our society. It is used in religious ceremonies, during socialization, and its presence is seen everywhere. Alcohol comes in many forms such as beer, wine, and hard liquor. Its use has been praised, denounced, accepted, and outlawed in the last century alone. Many admit that it is a problem, and how widespread and dangerous it is, but no one really wants to address the issue of alcohol and the media. The root of the underage drinking problem is the media, with its television shows, advertisements, and overall irresponsibility in portraying drinking as glamorous. The increase in underage drinking is a direct result of the media's influence on young people today.
To drink or not to drink? To choose not to drink is a hard decision when you are at a young age ranging 18-25 years old. Because this is the stage of enjoying life, partying, and living life to the fullest. It does get a bit harder when you constantly see alcoholics beverages advertise on a daily basis whether it be on television, or on social media. Being advise by the stars that most young people and kids look up to. The main purpose of this article is to persuade people to be against advertising alcoholic beverages or to persuade them that there is nothing wrong with it.
The growing awareness of alcohol hazards has made people more cautious of their drinking habits, particularly young adults Did you know it's believed that the average teen watches over 100,000 beer or alcohol related commercials between the age of 2 to 18 years old. Majority of the drunk drivers are usually male.
Unfortunately, alcohol advertising remains a more significant alcohol educator than parents or the school system. Alcohol is the only drug for which knowledge about it as a drug decreases, rather than increases with age. Even fewer 14-year-olds identified beer, wine, or liquor as a drug than did their 10-year-old counterparts, and the percentage of children who thought daily use of alcohol was harmful decreased 29 percent from the younger group. Nearly a quarter of the 208,909 TV commercials about alcohol in 2001 were more likely to be seen by teens than adults. The same study revealed that teens see more ads for liquor than they do for jeans, acne aids and athletic shoes. The ads appeared during 13 to 15 of the most popular teen shows including WB's Seventh Heaven and Gilmore Girls. The average young person saw 245 alcohol ads in 2001.
Nearly 25 percent of teens drink alcohol because they think it is fun; however the problems it may bring are not so fun (Hyde 22). There over six times more teen deaths per year from alcohol than any other drug (O’Malley 30). Alcohol affects the body of teens as well as all of the developmental processes. A major issue of teens drinking is that it increases the chance of becoming an alcoholic in the future; which leads to lowered self-control, impaired judgment, and lowered inhibition (Heath 12). Alcohol can completely change the life of a teen from the time they start drinking till death. Alcohol affects so many aspects of a person’s life and once it does, it is so hard to get life back to normal. Alcohol effects teens by harming them
Besides the heavy drinkers, the young audience plays a great deal to the alcohol industry. It is no wonder alcohol is appealing to the youth when ads only display very healthy, attractive, and youthful-looking people. Advertising is a powerful educating force in American Culture, one that promotes attitudes and values as well as products. Ads are now even featuring characters with special appeal to children. The makers of some 200 consumer products including stuffed animals, dolls, T-shirts, posters, and mugs are dedicated to alcohol. Advertisements have even gone as far as popular children's movies; one example of this was the very popular "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie. The average age which people begin