Young Americans are exposed to more television commercials for beer than for sneakers, gum or jeans, according to a study released Tuesday.
Young people ages 12 to 20 saw two beer or ale ads in 2001 for every three such commercials aired on programs viewed primarily by adults, the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University found.
"The alcohol industry monitoring their own advertising and current standards aren't protecting youth from alcohol marketing," said Jim O'Hara, the center's executive director.
The study analyzed $811 million spent on alcohol advertising on TV during 2001, representing 208,909 ads that were placed on network, cable and local broadcast outlets.
Underage viewers were more likely than adults of legal drinking age to have been exposed to a quarter of the 208,909 commercials aired.
Beer and ale advertising on TV amounted to $695 million. Roughly 18,000 ads were for beer, compared with 10,000 for sneakers, 16,000 for gum and 4,000 for jeans, the research found.
The analysis included information from Competitive Media Reporting and Nielsen Media Research.
The Beer Institute said in a statement that the industry doesn't target underage consumers.
"The way to address illegal underage drinking is to encourage others to get behind programs that are working instead of wasting valuable time censoring advertising to adults of legal drinking age," the institute said.
A September 1999 Federal Trade Commission report on the alcohol industry's advertising and marketing practices urged the industry to raise the standards to reduce underage alcohol ad exposure.
The center, which is supported by grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says it is time for the FTC to review the alcohol industry's television advertising practices.
"The industry hasn't taken recommendations to heart," said O'Hara. "There are questions about whether they protect the public health of youth or just protect the economic health of industries."
Youth See More TV Commercials for Beer than Sneakers, Gum
U.S. Newswire
17 Dec 14:08
Youth See More TV Commercials for Beer than Sneakers, Gum, Jeans;
Former FDA Commissioner Kessler to Discuss Report Findings
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 /U.S. Newswire/ -- One quarter of alcohol
advertising on television in 2001 was more likely to be seen
by youth than adults, according to a report released today by the
Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, a
public health group established to monitor and analyze the
industry's marketing and its impact on youth.
Report findings will be disclosed in full today via audio press
conference at 1:00 p.m. EST. Dial in number: 888-603-6974
Passcode: TV REPORT
The report by the Center analyzed alcohol advertising on cable
and network television in 2001. Of 208,909 alcohol commercials on
television in 2001, underage youth, ages 12 to 20, were more likely
than adults of legal drinking age to have seen 51,084 of them, or
24.5 percent.
In addition, the Center concluded that the alcohol industry's
voluntary guidelines for ad placements on television allow for the
substantial exposure of youth to alcoholic beverage advertising.
The published voluntary guidelines of the beer and distilled
spirits industries call for member companies not to advertise on
programs with a 50 percent or more youth audience. However, in
2001, only 1 percent of all network and cable television programs
(187 out of the14,359 tracked by Nielsen) had an underage audience
of 50 percent or more -- the industry threshold. Further, even
this minimal 50 percent threshold was sometimes violated as alcohol
advertisers spent $1.8 million to air 3,262 commercials on shows
with more youth viewers than adults
"This study shows that no one is protecting our youth. As a
result, teenagers are seeing unbalanced and unrealistic messages
about alcohol," said former Food and Drug Administration
Commissioner Dr. David A. Kessler who led the agency's
investigation on tobacco companies marketing to youth.
"The industry's own guidelines are so permissive that, in
practice, they amount to no limits at all. It is like a promise
not to drive faster than 125 miles per hour -- that doesn't slow
you down much," said Kessler, a pediatrician and currently dean of
the Yale University School of Medicine.
Other key findings from the study include:
-- Youth saw more commercials for beer than for juice, gum,
chips, sneakers or jeans. The beer and ale advertising delivered to
the underage youth audience in 2001 was greater than advertising
for various products normally associated with youth audiences.
Beer and ale advertising exceeded the advertising delivered to
youth audiences for fruit juices and fruit-flavored drinks, gum,
skin care products, sneakers, non-carbonated soft drinks, and
jeans.
-- Youth saw almost as much television alcohol advertising as
adults. Even when adults were more likely to see television alcohol
advertising than youth, in many instances youth exposure was
substantial. For instance, youth saw two beer and ale ads in 2001
for every three seen by an adult. Furthermore, a full 30 percent
of youth saw at least 780 alcohol commercials in 2001.
-- Youth-oriented networks and programs overexpose youth to
alcohol ads. Five networks -- WB, UPN, Comedy Central, BET and
VH-1 -- routinely overexposed youth to alcohol advertising in
2001. Two programming categories -- music video and entertainment
programs and variety shows -- more effectively delivered alcohol
advertising to the youth audience than to the adult audience.
Youth saw 48 percent more advertising than adults on music video
and entertainment programs. Variety programs delivered 26 percent
more advertising to youth audiences than to adults.
"It is evident that the alcohol industry is not adequately
monitoring its own advertising and that the current standards and
practice fail to protect youth from overly aggressive alcohol
marketing," said the Center's executive director Jim O'Hara.
The Center has submitted this data to the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) and asked for a new review of the companies'
advertising practices. At the request of Congress, the FTC
reviewed the alcohol industry's marketing practices in 1999 and
called for improvements, specifically recommending as a "best
practice" that alcohol companies not advertise on television
programs where the audience was 30 percent or 25 percent underage.
"The alcohol industry should stop hiding behind its bogus
50 percent standard and the FTC should ask itself if its `best
practices' standard really protects the public health of our youth
or just the economic health of the industry," O'Hara said.
Background on the report:
The study analyzes $811.2 million spent on alcohol product
advertising on television during calendar year 2001, representing
208,909 advertisements that were placed on network, cable, and spot
television. According to O'Hara, by "auditing" the actual alcohol
advertising on television in 2001, this analysis sheds light on how
much and how often youth were exposed to alcohol advertising on
television. The study employs the same tools, data sources, and
procedures that are utilized by media planners and buyers to carry
out advertising campaigns. Audience and expenditure data for all of
the advertising analyzed in this report is from Nielsen Media
Research and Competitive Media Reporting.
About the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown
University monitors the marketing practices of the alcohol industry
to focus attention and action on industry practices that jeopardize
the health and safety of America's youth. The Center is supported
by grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation. More information on the Center and a full text
of this study can be found at
http://www.camy.org.
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/qtr1_2003/1217-122.html
Like California, they don't really care if kids see beer ads or even become drunks - all they are fishing for is a reason to enforce "fees" (different from taxes in that they are spelled fees instead of taxes) on beer.
Parents will have to inject a little reality into this situation. Take your kids to the local watering whole 'round midnight. Note the difference between actual beer drinkers and the young, slim, fit, happy-go-lucky beautiful people portrayed in TV commercials.
Instead of complaining about the marketers, we ought to prepare our kids for the Marketing Culture by introducing them to Advertising methods in school. Show them the tricks, show them all the billions of dollars of marketing research that goes into studying them, and how that research turns into ad campaigns. With the advent of telecommunications, knowing how to sort through the marketing BS is now a life skill, and we should be teaching it.
I don't care about kids knowing there's alcohol out there. It does bug me when the ads imply their social well-being depends upon their drinking. Or when ad campaigns aimed at kids tell them their parents are full of garbage, or are just "not with it," or are old-fashioned and not to be trusted or listened to...
I believed the advertising! I didn't know it was addictive! I didn't know it was harmful! Budweiser ruined my life and somebody ought to be made to pay. Where's the class action attorney?
The Beer Institute. (Sigh) I am in the wrong durn business.
