Post: Alcohol Ads And Our Kids
Alcohol Ads And Our Kids
"I love this ad!" my tween son said when a certain beer commercial came on at the bottom of the third inning in the Giants game.
He's right -- it's funny. But my sense of humor runs out pretty fast when I realize that he knows the alcohol ad by heart. Last year in his sixth grade class, the boys managed to name 56 different brands of alcohol, but they could only come up with the names of seven United States senators.
Tweens and teens who have a steady diet of TV, movies, music, music videos, radio, and Web sites all see enormous numbers of alcohol ads.
In fact, a study released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly half of beer, wine, and liquor radio spots aired during youth-oriented programs.
Another study by Georgetown University documents a steady increase in alcohol ads (an astonishing 290,000 commercials) on TV alone. The study also found that TV shows that attract a large teen audience all showed alcohol ads.
Does advertising alcohol to kids work? You bet. Consider these sobering facts:
- One Dartmouth University study concludes that children who watched movies with alcohol use were more likely to try drinking than those who didn't see those films.
- The more alcohol ads young people see, the more they drink. Each additional dollar alcohol companies spend on advertising raises the number of drinks youths consume by 3 percent.
- A study of 9- to 11-year-olds found they knew the Budweiser frogs better than Tony the Tiger, the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, or Smokey the Bear.
- Kids who own alcohol-branded items such as T-shirts and baseball caps are 1.5 times more likely to use alcohol than those who don't.
- 47 percent of kids who start drinking before age 14 become alcoholics within 10 years.
Think your kids are too young for you to have to worry about how these ads impact them? Think again. My daughter is in 11th grade, and her classmates have started drinking. In fact, the average age 12- to 17-year-olds say they first tried alcohol is 12.8.
Eighty-one percent of 12th graders, 70 percent of 10th graders, and 53 percent of 8th graders have tried drinking at least once (all higher percentages than those who've smoked cigarettes!). And three-quarters of 8th graders say it's fairly easy to get alcohol. No wonder alcohol is the #1 substance used in middle and high school.
So the next time you see a beer ad on TV or go to a movie where everyone's drinking, tell your kids what you think. Tell them that they're the targets of advertisers hoping to hook them on their brands.
It's your only hope of equal airtime.
For more, visit the The Marin Institute, where you can find most of the statistics mentioned here.