Discuss about  alcohol advertising and the youth………………

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………3

METHODS OF STUDY………………………………………………………………….3

RESULTS…………………………………………………………………………………4

MAGAZINE …………………….………………………………………………………..4

TELEVISION ……………………………………………………………………………..5

RADIO…………………………………………………………………………………….5

INTERNET………………………………………………………………………………..5

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………….5

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………….…………7

INTRODUCTION

There is a growing concern worldwide regarding alcohol consumption by the youths. Public health officials are worried about the growing number of youths who consumes alcohol yet they are below the legal alcohol drinking age (Goldfarb, Tucker, 2011). According United States of America the legal alcohol drinking age should be 21 years and above. Research by various organizations has shown that youths aged 12years to 21 years in the United States are engaged in abuse of alcohol. According to these studies, the growing number of youths who are engaged in alcohol abuse is as a result of being exposed in alcohol marketing and advertisement by the industry players (Goldfarb, Tucker, 2011). The research shows that a larger percentage of youths who are below the legal drinking age are exposed to the alcohol advertising post as compared to the adults who have attained minimum legal drinking age. Due to the concern, the United States came up with a body called Center for Alcohol Marketing and youth (CAMY) in 2002 at Georgetown University. CAMY was formed to monitor the marketing of alcohol in the United States by the alcohol companies, its influence on the youth and to establish and come up with the solution regarding the issue. The article Alcohol Advertising and the Youth reviews the CAMY work since its inception and the applications of the results to policies towards youth alcohol abuse.

METHODS OF STUDY

Center for Alcohol Marketing and the Youth (CAMY) study was based on four main advertising avenues. The research looked at advertisement through television, radio, magazine and internet. The four avenues of advertisement were considered to be the most types of advertisement avenues which the youth access on a regular basis. CAMY in its analysis defined the youth age as that between 12 years and 20 years. This is also the age bracket which according to various studies, are engaged in alcohol abuse in the United States of America. It is also an illegal drinking age according to the United States drinking law (Goldfarb, Tucker, 2011). In the CAMY research adult population was defined as that which ranges from 21 years old and above which again according to the United States of America law is the legal drinking age of the population. CAMY also based its analysis on the fact that the youth exposure is an instance where a majority of the audience for any particular alcohol advertisement is composed of the youth aged 12 years and 21 years.

RESULTS

CAMY came up with its results based on the four avenues of advertisements, magazine, radio, television, and newspaper.

MAGAZINE

In magazine advertisements CAMY found that the advertisement for beer, spirits, and alcoholic lemonades exposure for the  youth exposure per capita was 48%, 20%, and 92%, more respectively. The analysis also found that for the wine advertisement, the percentage exposure to youths per capita was 66% less. This implies that wine advertisements are more appealing to the adults than the youth. Based on gender, CAMY analysis found that girls aged between 12 years to 20 years old were more exposed than women aged 21 years old and above, similarly boys who are in the illegal drinking age were more exposed to alcohol advertisement than men of the legal drinking age. In general the study reveals that girls who are below the legal drinking age were more exposed to magazine advertisement than boys below the drinking age limit. The study however did not come up with the relationship between girl’s exposure to alcoholic advertisement and the level of their drinking.

TELEVISION

It is more difficult to control the level of alcohol advertisement on television than the other avenues. The result of the study shows that out of 761347 alcoholic advertisements which were carried out by the alcoholic companies in the United States of America between 2001 and 2002, 181932 of those advertisements were seen by the youths below the legal drinking age. This constitute to about 24% of the advertisements. During the same period there was 24164 alcohol responsibility advertisements, and the results revealed that a small percentage of the youths were likely to view the responsibility advertisements as compared to advertisement promoting alcohol drinking.

RADIO

In the CAMY analysis on radio advertisement on alcohol, a total of 51883 airing were sampled, in a market which consists of 104 players. It found out that youths who are below the legal drinking age dominated the audience of these radio advertisements.

INTERNET

The internet research on alcohol advertisements revealed that the 700000 youths below the legal drinking age visited the sites with alcohol promotional advertisements in 2003. It further shows that advertisements promotions of the spirit were the leading site visited by the youth, followed by those of beer advertisements.

CONCLUSION

The research of CAMY proves the importance of evaluating the level of alcohol advertisement to the youth. Policies regarding alcohol advertisement should be based on the research, rather than leaving the industry players to regulate the alcohol advertisement on their own.  Although most of the alcoholic companies try to control their alcohol advertisement to help reduce youth exposure, they are not well positioned to come up with the policy regulations as they do not carry out extensive research on the alcohol advertisement exposure to youth’s advertisements.

REFERENCES

Goldfarb, A, Tucker, C (2011). Advertising Bans and the Substitutability of Online and Offline Advertising. Journal of marketing Research.48 (2), 207-227.

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