Alcohol Industry "Responsibility" Advertising on Television, 2001 to 2003

Publication Date:

Publisher:

Author(s): Center on Alcohol Marketing on Youth

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University compared the "responsibility" ads placed by the alcohol industry on television between 2001 and 2003 to televised alcohol product ads from the same time period. The comparison was done in terms of number, cost, placement on television programs and audiences exposed. "Responsibility" ads have as their primary focus a message about drinking responsibly, not drinking and driving, or not drinking before the legal age of 21.



Between 2001 and 2003, 78 percent of underage youth between the ages of 12 and 20 saw television ads purchased by alcohol companies to discourage underage drinking. Yet, on average, they saw only nine of these ads over the entire three-year period.



In comparison, 91 percent of 12- to 20-year-olds saw an average of 779 product ads selling alcohol over the same time period. Alcohol company "responsibility" ads about drunk driving and safety fared slightly better than underage drinking ads, with 82 percent of youth seeing an average of 20 alcohol company ads about drinking safely or not drinking and driving.



The report finds that televised alcohol industry messages about responsibility do not come close to countering the weight of young people's exposure to product commercials for alcohol. These findings, the report notes, underscore the need for an independently funded national media campaign to reduce and prevent underage drinking, the central recommendation of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine's report on underage drinking released in September 2003