U.S. Youth Bombarded by Ads for Alcohol

By Hugh C. McBride

“You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.” – Norman Douglas, British novelist and travel writer

If Norman Douglas were alive today, he would be hard-pressed not to believe that the United States is obsessed with alcohol.

According to Georgetown University’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY), the alcohol industry spends about $2 billion on advertising every year – an expenditure that paid for more than two million television spots and 20,000 magazine ads between 2001 and 2007. And though companies that make and distribute alcoholic beverages insist that their ad budgets are devoted to wooing consumers over the age of 21, many watchdog organizations and some government agencies believe that American youth are in danger of drowning in a sea of sales pitches for beer, wine, and hard liquor.

Youthful experimentation with alcohol predates the invention of the Internet – as well as that of the television set – thus debunking any notion that modern multimedia ad campaigns are the sole cause of underage drinking in America.

But the extent to which the alcohol industry has exposed itself to viewers under the age of 21 over the past two decades – and the effectiveness with which these efforts have conveyed a pro-drinking message – has caused considerable concern among those who are dedicated to keeping kids away from alcohol. The following are a few of the statistics that are often cited by advocates of more stringent regulations on alcohol advertising:

• According to Congressional Quarterly Researcher, most American youth will have seen 75,000 advertisements for alcohol before they reach their 16^th birthday.
• Fifty-six percent of students in grades 5 through 12 told researchers with the American Academy of Pediatrics that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink.
• The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has reported that 12-year-olds who were more knowledgeable about beer advertising held more favorable views on drinking, and expressed an intention to drink more often as adults, than did children of the same age who were less aware of the ads.
• The NIAAA has also reported that youth who start drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than are those who delay drinking until they are 21 or older.
• A 1998 product-placement analysis by the Federal Trade Commission found that alcohol companies had paid to place their products in 233 motion pictures and in one or more episodes of 181 different television series in the preceding year.
• A 1996 study conducted by the Center on Alcohol Advertising found that the Budweiser frogs were more familiar to children between the ages of 9 and 11 than were Tony the Tiger, the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, or Smokey Bear.

The problem posed by these trends, says CAMY’s executive director, Dr. David Jernigan, can be expressed in a simple equation: “The more ads kids are exposed to, the more likely they are to drink,” Jernigan told writer Todd Zwillich for a June 25, 2008 article on the WebMD website.

An analysis conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research has determined that a complete ban on alcohol advertising could reduce monthly levels of youth drinking by 24 percent, and could decrease instances of youth binge drinking by as much as 42 percent.

But the likelihood of a moratorium being placed on all alcohol-related advertising is virtually nonexistent. If anything, the continued development of more mobile media technologies means that such appeals are likely to become even more prevalent. How, then, can parents hope to protect their children from the persuasive might of an industry that produces some of the world’s most popular adult products?

The following tips can help counteract the claims and minimize the enticements put forth by alcohol companies and their advertising agencies:

• Monitor the media – You can’t control all the advertisements that your children see, but you can be aware of what they are watching on television and accessing online when they’re at home. Restrict your children’s recreational screen time to an age-appropriate number of hours, and only allow televisions and computers to be used in areas of the house where you can easily observe what they’re seeing and reading.
• Discuss what they’re seeing – Talk about the alcohol advertisements that your children see when they are watching their favorite shows or surfing the Internet. Ask them why they think certain products are promoted during certain shows, or why some companies pay to have their names attached to events such as extreme sports or social networking sites.

Enhancing your children’s awareness of the sales pitches they encounter will help them separate entertainment from advertisements – and teaching them about the persuasive techniques to which they are being exposed will increase their ability to identify and resist them.

• Analyze their behavior (and yours, too) – Advertising experts know that consumers who form “brand allegiances” at young ages are likely to remain loyal to a product well into their adulthood. Pay attention to slogans and company logos on your children’s clothes, and note their dedication to “starter brands” (for example, nonalcoholic energy drinks that are sold by companies that also distribute alcoholic beverages).

Also, be aware of the signals your actions (such as insisting on a certain beer when watching sports, or welcoming the weekend with a celebratory cocktail) may be sending to your children.

Regardless of whether they are prompted to drink because of industry advertisements, peer pressure, or one of the myriad other influences on teen behavior, statistics show that millions of U.S. teens and adolescents regularly consume alcoholic beverages:

• A 2005 survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that 10.8 million individuals between the ages of 12 and 20 admitted to drinking alcohol in the past month, with more than seven million underage drinkers having engaged in binge drinking (which is defined as having five or more drinks in a single session).
• The annual “Monitoring the Future” report, which is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has concluded that three-fourths of all U.S. students consume alcohol before they graduate from high school, with more than 40 percent having their first encounter with alcohol by the time they reach the eighth grade.

Because drinking at a young age has been associated with a greater likelihood of developing dependency or alcoholism later in life, underage drinking should not be shrugged off as a rite of passage or harmless youthful indiscretion. For some teens, apparently innocuous initial experiences with alcohol quickly lead to destructive behaviors that require professional intervention.

The following therapeutic boarding schools are specifically designed to meet the unique needs of adolescents who are struggling with addictive disorders:

• Aspen Ranch – This co-educational licensed residential treatment center helps adolescents ages 14-17 to overcome substance abuse, low self-esteem, academic underachievement, and other behavioral issues. The ranch’s program of goal-oriented therapeutic activities helps students address specific developmental skill and knowledge deficits as well as emotional and behavioral problems.
• SunHawk Academy – SunHawk offers a residential treatment program for adolescents ages 13 through 17 who are facing emotional problems, family issues, substance abuse, and academic difficulties. In addition to being licensed as an Adolescent Residential Treatment Center by the State of Utah Department of Human Services, SunHawk is also an accredited high school through the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools.

A wealth of additional information about teens and substance abuse, including what signs to watch for and how to get help, is available online at www.drugrehabtreatment.com.