Study Shows Ads Boost Drinking Among Young

[MrsSpringsteen]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/01/02/health.drinking.reut/index.html

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- "Young adults as well as teenagers drink more under the influence of advertising for alcoholic beverages, researchers said on Monday.

A survey of young people aged 15 to 26 found that for each additional alcohol advertisement viewed per month, there followed a 1 percent rise in the average number of drinks consumed, said study author Leslie Snyder of the University of Connecticut in Storrs.


...........The study measured advertising exposure on each of four media: television, radio, magazines and billboards.

"The results also contradict claims that advertising is unrelated to youth drinking amounts: that advertising at best causes brand switching, only affects those older than the legal drinking age or is effectively countered by current educational efforts," Snyder wrote.

In an editorial in the journal, David Jernigan of Georgetown University in Washington said the study was the first of its kind to link young people's alcohol use directly to objective measures of industry spending on advertising.

 

[U2democrat]

I would agree with that. I'm just about the only one out of all my friends who doesn't drink.

 

[the rockin edge]

i'm 18, rarely ever watch tv aka see the ads & and i drink in small amounts

 

[nbcrusader]

Interesting correlation between viewing ads and increased drinking.

Perhaps the causation is not the ads themselves, but with the way youth are spending their time? Increase passive activities like viewing television may mean that there is more time to fill with activities such as drinking.

 

[melon]

Meh. I think the ads are meaningless. Kids will drink with or without them.

Melon

 

[Liesje]

Interesting correlation between viewing ads and increased drinking.

Perhaps the causation is not the ads themselves, but with the way youth are spending their time? Increase passive activities like viewing television may mean that there is more time to fill with activities such as drinking.

I was thinking the exact same thing. I've consumed more alcolohol in the past month than the rest of my entire life combined (which sounds bad, but it's hardly anything at all). I've also seen more ads for acohol than ever before. So, you could easily say that the more ads I see, the more I drink. Thinking back to these ads, the only thing I think they've effected would be me likelihood to try a new brand or different type of drink. It seems like there is a correlation, but something else is missing. I mean, you could just as easily do a study that shows that kids are less active these days and then say "kids are less active and are drinking way more" when we know there's nothing of any substance linking those two trends.

 

[BVS]

Meh. I think the ads are meaningless. Kids will drink with or without them.

^ I agree with that.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Meh. I think the ads are meaningless. Kids will drink with or without them.

Melon

Bingo.

I've seen a good deal of ads for alcoholic beverages in my lifetime. Never touched a drop of any of those kinds of drinks .

Angela

 

[nathan1977]

So if advertising doesn't have an effect on activity....

...why do so many advertisers do it?

 

[trevster2k]

So if advertising doesn't have an effect on activity....

...why do so many advertisers do it?

Awareness, it gets their product out there, if you were a first time homeowner and looking for a place to buy some do it yourself supplies, you might not know where to go but thanks to an ad, you may choose Home Depot over a Rona store.

Like Pepsi and Coke, most adults have already chosen their taste but the jingles and ads try to convert young drinkers who have yet to have a strong preference plus like a great song, they hope the viewer connects to the product via the warm or happy feelings felt after viewing the ad.

Perception goes a long way too, if it is considered trendy, people do it just for that reason. Advertising can create that trend.

It's pretty crazy how much money gets spent on advertising. Movies companies actually spend as much on marketing some films as they do on making the film itself.

Some people are strongly affected by ads but some aren't but even if they sway a small number of people, companies feel it is justified.

In this situation, I do think that the portrayal of young people having fun, hooking up and partying is influencing the choice of young people looking to find a place to fit in and be accepted by peers, they are an extremely vulnerable segment of society and ads can sway their decision making. Alcoholic drinks go through trends too, like a good ad campaign can make a certain brand popular and "in" while a poor one can kill it. No one wants to be seen drinking a beer that's not cool. Like Bavaria beer from Brazil had an ad campaign in Canada which drove its sales, a friend offered me one to try, tasted like crap, but people bought them since their campaign consisted of scantily clad women in string bikinis. It has since disappeared from the mainstream again just like Foster's from Australia during the Crocidile Dundee phase years ago had a peak and died off, thanks to marketing.

 

[anitram]

I think ever since those nasty vodka coolers came out in bottles that younger and younger kids are drinking them more. The Smirnoff Ice and Twisted fruit flavours and the hard lemonades and so on. Vile, disgusting sugary stuff, but you can't taste the booze in them and I can see young kids getting drunk on them without even realizing it.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Awareness, it gets their product out there

Yep. 'Tis their job, after all. They just put the product out. We as consumers still have the ability to decide whether or not we wish to buy whatever they're selling.

Angela

 

[nbcrusader]

Yep. 'Tis their job, after all. They just put the product out. We as consumers still have the ability to decide whether or not we wish to buy whatever they're selling.

I doubt people are fully self-aware of the influence of advertising.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

I doubt people are fully self-aware of the influence of advertising.

And I still maintain that advertising has as much influence over somebody as they allow it to. Do the people hope you'll buy the stuff? Yes, obviously.

Do you have to just because they say so? No.

Angela

 

[nbcrusader]

And I still maintain that advertising has as much influence over somebody as they allow it to. Do the people hope you'll buy the stuff? Yes, obviously.

Do you have to just because they say so? No.

Angela

I'll look for the studies, but my guess is that advertising becomes white noise - we hear it, but it doesn't stay in the forefront of our memory. It is not a matter of "having" to buy something; but when given a choice, latent information about a product may be the deciding factor if we realize it or not.

We can always tell ourselves that a purchase is based on our own purely objective desires, but we would simply be ignoring the mass of information that resides within us.

 

[joyfulgirl]

Meh. I think the ads are meaningless. Kids will drink with or without them.

Melon

I know kids who don't even have TV or pay much attention to media in general and they drink.

 

[Irvine511]

i didn't need a TV to tell me that drinking was fun and made me look cool.

i mean Bono drinks, for heaven's sake!

 

[U2democrat]

If I start drinking the second I have a beer in my hand people have their cameras ready knowing that they can send the photos to the Washington Post


I did drink some in Europe this summer just to see what all the fuss was about, it wasn't anything too special, I act just as stupid sober

 

[Achtung_Bebe]

I'll look for the studies, but my guess is that advertising becomes white noise - we hear it, but it doesn't stay in the forefront of our memory. It is not a matter of "having" to buy something; but when given a choice, latent information about a product may be the deciding factor if we realize it or not.

We can always tell ourselves that a purchase is based on our own purely objective desires, but we would simply be ignoring the mass of information that resides within us.

This is very true. This process is referred to as "priming," because advertisers are essentially "planting a seed" in your consumer mind. We may toss the product out of our mind once the ad has run, but the important thing is that the ad is percieved for that 1-minute or so time slot. Low risk/low involvement products, such as toilet paper, toothpaste, laundry detergent etc. don't require gathering large amounts of information before a purchase. The ads surrounding such products are primarily run to increase awareness, not to inform. For these products you may find an ad which is funny or cute, but does not even feature the product itself.

On the other hand, high risk products get the consumer more involved in the purchasing decision... for example car ads are loaded with info (unless it's a car with an "elite" image, i.e. lexus, then the ads may just feature fancy driving shots and little info.)

In the case of ads for alcoholic beverages, what they're really speaking to is a person's desire to fit in, so a relatively low-risk product becomes a bit risky, and advertisers really do play off of the teenagers' desire to fit in, all in the name of sales.

(successful) advertisements are so incredibly calculated and thoughtfully planned out, they're very influential--as Moonlit_Angel said before, ads can't force us to buy anything, and they'll affect us as much as we'll allow them -- but the media is very powerful. To an extent, I think it influences what we buy, because it shapes our perception of reality (good or bad).

 

[For Honor]

Kids and booze......




They all need to grow up