Internet Alcohol Marketing Recall and Drinking in Underage Adolescents (2020)

McClure, A. C., Gabrielli, J., Cukier, S., Jackson, K. M., Brennan, Z. L. B., & Tanski, S. E. (2020). Internet alcohol marketing recall and drinking in underage adolescents. Academic Pedriatrics, 20(1), 128-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2019.08.003

OBJECTIVE: Evidence suggests that adolescents are exposed to alcohol marketing in digital media. We aimed to assess recall of Internet alcohol marketing and its association with underage drinking.

METHODS: New England adolescents age 12 to 17 years (N = 202) were recruited from a pediatric clinic. Subjects com- pleted an online survey assessing: 1) general simple recall of Inter- net alcohol marketing and 2) image-prompted recall of specific Internet alcohol marketing channels (display ads, commercials, brand websites, and brand social media pages). Cross-sectional associations between recall (simple and image-prompted) and ever-drinking were each assessed in regression analysis adjusting for age, gender, race, parent education, ever-smoking, media use, sensation-seeking, peer/parent drinking, parent monitoring/respon- siveness, and parent Internet monitoring.

RESULTS: In this sample (Mage = 14.5 years; 55% female; 89% white; high parent education), 20% reported ever-drinking and 87% recalled Internet alcohol marketing. Of the latter, 67% recalled display ads, 67% Internet commercials, 5% websites, and 5% social media pages. In logistic regression, higher sim- ple Internet alcohol advertising recall was independently associated with higher odds of ever-drinking for simple (adjusted odds ratio: 2.66 [1.04,6.83]) but not for image-prompted recall.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite controlling for potential confounders, simple recall of Internet alcohol marketing was significantly associated with underage drinking whereas image-prompted recall was significant only in bivariate analysis, likely due to small sample and a more limited range of specific channels assessed than those accessed by adolescents. Further longitudi- nal studies using image-prompted recall and capturing a broader range of internet platforms could be used to better understand adolescent engagement with alcohol marketing and guide policy and prevention efforts.