Drops in the Bucket: : Alcohol Industry

Publication Date:

Publisher: Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth

Author(s): Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

This report, presented by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, focuses on the amount and placement of "responsibility" advertising on television by alcohol companies in 2001. "Responsibility ads" are advertisements that have as their primary focus a clear, unambiguous message about drinking responsibly, not drinking and driving, or discouraging underage drinking. CAMY commissioned Virtual Media Resources (VMR) to analyze the alcohol industry's televised "responsibility" ads in 2001 and reports the following: (1) alcohol companies placed more than 87 product promotion commercials in 2001 for every ad about not driving after drinking or not drinking before age 21 (less than 3 percent of the industry's television advertising budget); (2) alcohol companies placed 172 product promotion commercials on television in 2001 for every drinking and driving awareness ad (more than twice as many adults were exposed to these ads as youth); and (3) alcohol companies placed 179 product promotion commercials on television in 2001 for every legal drinking age ad (more than twice as many adults were exposed to these ads as youth). Because alcohol is excluded from the federal "drug czar's" anti-drug campaign, alcohol companies have become the primary source of educational messages about alcohol abuse on television. Although alcohol companies and advertising industry representatives state that the industry's responsibility campaigns are evidence of the companies' commitment to preventing underage alcohol use and its negative consequences, this report shows that alcohol companies are better at reaching young people with their product advertising than with their responsibility ads.