This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Alcohol brands in violation of US advertising guidelines
Violations of the US alcohol industry’s advertising standards are most common in magazines with sizable youth readerships, according to a new study from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth in the US.
According to the report, industry violation includes ads appearing to promote underage drinking, highlighting the high alcohol content or displaying alcohol alongside activities that necessitates full alertness and coordination, such as swimming.
Researchers analysed 1,261 ad samples for alcopops, beer, spirits or wine that appeared more than 2,500 times in 11 different magazines that are likely to have at least a 15% youth readership.
Each ad was looked at by different risk codes such as injury content, over-consumption content, addiction content, sex-related content and violation of industry guidelines.
“The finding that violations of the alcohol industry’s advertising standards were most common in magazines with the most youthful audiences tells us self-regulated voluntary codes are failing,” said CAMY director and study co-author David Jernigan, PhD.
“It’s time to seriously consider stronger limits on youth exposure to alcohol advertising.”
The results were that one in five ads contained sexual objectification. Spirits, such as brandy, Tequila, rum, vodka and whisky accounted for two-thirds of ads and beer accounted for 30% of ads.
Ten of the most advertised brands, which mainly consisted of spirits and beer, accounted for 30% of the ads, while seven brands were responsible for more than half of the violations of industry marketing guidelines.
The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
In reaction, Lisa Hawkins, vice president Public Affairs, Distilled Spirits Council said, “A study, which characterises all advertisements that depict someone holding or being handed an alcohol beverage near a body of water as “risky content” defies common sense.
“CDC’s funding would be better spent on evidence-based programs to reduce underage drinking versus a subjective review of magazine ads that are anywhere from nearly 5 to 9 years old, which is not relevant to today’s marketplace.
“What is relevant is that alcohol consumption and binge drinking rates among 8th, 10th and 12th graders have continued their long-term decline, reaching historically low levels, according to federal government data. Simply put, CAMY’s claim that alcohol advertising is causing teens to drink is disproved by the federal government data and unsupported by the body of scientific literature.”
This report is subjective, biased, and highly misleading. The title is even deceptive because the report doesn’t document the violation of industry standards.
The report isn’t about youth-oriented magazines as most people would define them but about those that have as few as 15% readers age 12-20. Those can’t reasonably be defined as youth-oriented, but the authors have to set the bar so low because they would have nothing at all to report. They even include some magazines that, in their own words, they “suspect” may have 15% or more youthful readers!
It is the two authors, and they alone, who decide not only which magazines to select but also how they will identify which ads supposedly promote drinking alcohol with risky behaviors, promote addiction, are sexual in nature, etc. They decided that an ad describing a particular brand of alcoholic beverage as “irresistable” promotes addiction by so describing it. A couple enjoying lunch and a drink at a picnic bench promotes consuming alcohol with risky behaviors if a river can be seen in the backgound.
The authors conveniently ignore the fact that virutually no ads violated the industry standard against alcohol advertising in any magazines with 30% or more younger readers.
The authors’ urgent call for government imposition of additional laws and regulations are not justified. Federal statistics show that the proportion of those under 21 who drink, binge drink, or who die in alcohol-related accidents on the road have all dropped to historic lows.
It’s most unfortunate that in a time of severe budgetary crisis, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave the Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth $4,000,000 with which it produces such deceptive reports in an effort to influence legislation.
Members of Congress need to make sure that no more tax money is wasted on the Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth.
To learn more about this activist group, its blatant waste of our tax money, and its history of churning out unscientific reports, visit AlcoholFacts.org.