Media, Alcohol Advertising, Media Literacy and Youth Substance Abuse Prevention

 As you enjoy a few minutes watching a favorite television program, relaxing in your favorite chair, and maybe, munching on a favorite snack, the inevitable appears – advertisements. What you see in prime time is also seen by your youth. We, mostly just ignore the ads. Or do we, and furthermore, should we? Did you know that the more alcohol ads young people see, the more likely they are to drink, drink to excess and drink more often? The Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog, reaches this conclusion based on their research.

The Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY, www.camy.org) reports that big bucks are spent on advertising and very sophisticated research goes into developing and targeting advertised messages. The reality is that advertising works and the messages generally achieve their objectives sometimes with subtlety and sometimes without. 
 
CAMY reports youth are increasingly seeing more alcohol media messages... Are you aware that between 11% and 20% of all alcohol sold in the U.S. in 2007 was consumed by youth below the minimum legal drinking age? The research at CAMY and the Marin Institute suggests the influence of advertising may be, in-part, driving that consumption? Are you allowing your child to watch advertisements irrespective of the message or are you teaching them to analyze advertised content? You and your child are better off if you do the latter. 
 
The alcohol industry has been granted advertising self-regulation and claim to limit minor exposure. However, CAMY reports that youth exposure to alcohol marketing is increasing due to youth spending more time on radio, TV, the internet and print media. Alcohol advertising laws vary across states but generally it cannot be false or misleading, should not target minors, portray minors ,or be placed near locations where minors congregate, i.e. schools, playgrounds.
 
Although most parents will monitor their child’s offline activities, few are paying close attention to their online experiences, television, radio and print media habits. And this means that youth, just like adults, may be seeing a lot of beer ads during the college bowl and super bowl season. You can protect your child from this influence.
 
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