Everyday our society watches television, flips through magazines, surfs the internet, checks our emails, and many other everyday life activities that alcohol advertisements are located in. It is very true that there are many factors that may influence an underage person’s decision to drink under the legal age, but the media does happen to play a big role in this decision. More young people in the U.S. drink alcohol every month than smoke cigarettes or use any illegal drug (http://www.camy.org/research/YouthExposuretoAlcoholAdvertisinginNationalMagazines2001-2008/index.html). An example of this was seen in this year’s Super Bowl Budweiser advertisements throughout the entire game. The world’s biggest brewer spent around $25 million to buy a total of 10 advertisements to be aired during the February’s Super Bowl XL which consisted of Bud, Bud Light and Michelob (http://www.marininstitute.org/alcohol_industry/ad_alert.htm). During this game it is estimated that 25 million underage youth are watching which includes 7 million who are under the age of 12 they used advertisements that had animals in it which help make the brands popular among youth which was shown in the American Medial Association’s Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (http://www.marininstitute.org/alcohol_industry/ad_alert.htm).
A study published in the Journal of Health Communication found that youth from the age 10-17 years prefer beer advertisements that show humor, music, and animal characters and are more likely to say that these types of commercials make them want to buy the beer advertised (http://www.marininstitute.org/alcohol_industry/ad_alert.htm). Having advertisements like this seems to only try to attract the eye of our underage youth in our society. I don’t know what child or youth wouldn’t pay attention to animals in a commercial because they all love these types of things and catch their eyes. It doesn’t surprise me either that this study in the Journal of Health Communication found that after this year’s Super Bowl viewers under the age of 17 years old voted that the Bud light commercials were one of the four favorite advertisements during the Super Bowl (http://www.marininstitute.org/alcohol_industry/ad_alert.htm). It doesn’t surprise me because it seems that the actual industries are using anything they possibly can to get the attention of our youth. As I mentioned before youth from 10-17 will actually go out and get the alcoholic beverage being advertised because they like how the item is portrayed.
According to the Surgeon Generals Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking the alcohol industry has a public duty that relates to other marketing of this product since it is illegal in our states for more than a total of 80 million underage Americans to consume it (http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/alcohol_advertising_promotion/index.html). This is done through products and advertising design and placement that meet this expectations and criteria (http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/alcohol_advertising_promotion/index.html). So basically these advertisement agencies are only doing their jobs to promote their products because a group of the society is not allowed to consume or even touch this product. A very good argument against the alcohol advertisement targeting our youth is that according to the Surgeon General no alcohol product is designed or advertised to appeal to youth or to influence youth by sending the message that by drinking is an appropriate way for minors to learn to drink or that any form of alcohol is acceptable for drinking by anyone under the age of 21 (http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/alcohol_advertising_promotion/index.html) which means to me that no one is forcing a gun at our youths head and they are choosing to do this all by themselves regardless of all the talk on advertisements and such. Even though our Surgeon General may have put this out there as evidence for us to believe that the alcohol advertisers are not trying to target youth it’s actually hard to believe because it is shown above that some agencies actually do target our youth. Given the simple fact that no one is forcing these youth to drink they are exposed to such advertisements that might make them want to go out and try the alcohol they see being advertised. Even if these agencies are not purposely targeting our youth these advertisements show that a large amount of these commercial messages and promotions do in fact reach underage youth (http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/Alcohol_Advertising_and_Promotion_A_Collective_Responsibility.html).
“The industry has the prerogative-indeed, the social obligation-to regulate its own practices and to refrain from marketing products or engaging in promotional activities that have a particular appeal to youngsters, irrespective of whether such practices can be proven to "cause" underage drinking”(http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/Alcohol_Advertising_and_Promotion_A_Collective_Responsibility.html). Even though this might be backed by some research I don’t think it is one hundred percent true because if this was true our alcohol agencies wouldn’t make alcohol that tasted like juice or kool aide or energy drinks that contained alcohol in them. They target our younger generation with ways that they make themnot intentionally target our youth. Every day on television one cannot watch an hour without the advertisement of alcohol airing. This is due to the industry alcohol placement that is allowed to be aired because more than 70% of the population is over the age of 21 with the exception of alcohol being permitted from being advertised on children shows or magazines (http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/Alcohol_Advertising_and_Promotion_A_Collective_Responsibility.html). I happen to see this every day of my life because I see some form of alcohol being advertised in a way whether it is through the internet or television. Alcohol agencies are picking up on the different forms of media in our society today because they are aired and advertised in every form they can be from internet to the radio to television. Between 2001 and 2005, youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television in the U.S. increased by 41%. Much of this increase resulted from the rise in distilled spirits advertising on television from 1,973 ads in 2001 to 46,854 ads in 2005 (http://www.camy.org/factsheets/sheets/Alcohol_Advertising_and_Youth.html).
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