Alcohol ads boost drinking among young: study

CHICAGO (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’s findings counter industry arguments that only
adult drinkers heed alcohol advertising, Snyder wrote in the
journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

In the study — released around the New Year’s holiday that
is often associated with toasts and excessive imbibing — the
researchers conducted four rounds of interviews between 1999
and 2001 with a group of young people, with the initial 1,872
subjects selected randomly.

Another finding was that for each additional dollar spent
per capita on alcohol advertising in a particular media market,
study participants drank 3 percent more per month.

In markets with heavy alcohol advertising of more than $10
per capita per month, alcohol consumption increased over time
and reached a peak of 50 drinks per month by age 25.

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.

The study “calls into question the industry’s argument that
its roughly $1.8 billion in measured media expenditures per
year have no impact on underage drinking,” he wrote.

Snyder doubted whether the industry was heeding voluntary
guidelines that 70 percent of the audience for its advertising
be at least 21 years old, the legal drinking age.