I was a recent participant of the CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) Mid-Year Training Institute in Nashville, Tenn., where a group of dedicated professionals came together to learn the latest evidence-based information and best practices related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Without question, I walked away with a new awareness and genuine concern for our youth and young adults in respect to alcohol advertising and its direct impact on underage and binge drinking.
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) gave an excellent seminar that addressed digital and social media alcohol advertising and its strong link to underage and binge drinking. (According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), binge drinking can be defined as five drinks in a sitting for men and four drinks for women. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reports that of all underage drinkers, 65 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds and 72 percent of 18- to 20-year-olds report binge drinking in the past 30 days.) One of the cheapest, easiest, fastest and most reliable avenues to connect with youth and young adults is through social media outlets. In fact, many of the sites that parents and adults trust young people to access are filled with alcohol advertising. Take Facebook, for example. You can “like” many types of alcoholic beverages and their respective companies and even upload photos of you and your friends consuming their product (you only have to be 13 to open a Facebook page, so clearly pictures can be posted by underage consumers). Absolutely free advertising and little regulation. With millions of people daily using social media sites, it is a no-brainer as to why alcohol companies market and advertise this way. In addition, television and magazine advertising runs concurrently with similar forms of advertising. For example, in magazine advertising for every 1 million readers ages 12-19, the publication has 1.6 more beer and 1.3 more distilled spirits ads (camy.org). The alcohol companies’ advertising techniques are ultra creative in reaching this age group, which in turn makes the level of appeal very high. It’s clear – alcohol advertisers do their research, and they depend on this research to strategically foster new generations of binge drinkers.
Why should we be concerned about protecting our young people from the harmful effects of alcohol advertising? During adolescence, alcohol can present a special allure to young people for social, genetic, psychological and cultural reasons. This attraction occurs at the very time adolescents may not be fully prepared to anticipate all the effects of drinking alcohol and when they are more vulnerable to its adverse consequences. Further, alcohol has been shown to impair one’s ability to evaluate risk and reward when making decisions (The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking). Therefore, it is essential that parents and adults talk to youth about the potential consequences of alcohol during adolescence. These conversations are invaluable and should be framed in a way that ensures that the young person feels heard and supported. It will keep the door open for future conversations.
I challenge you to take a critical approach and see alcohol advertising through a new lens. Ideally, we will move forward with a better understanding of how alcohol policies in tangent with alcohol advertising may promote and encourage underage and binge drinking. Remember, as a community member, we are in charge of helping to shape the social norms around alcohol use and advertising policies. Please speak up when what you see and hear sends unhealthy, false and deceptive messages to the young people in our community. Our work is to help youth and young adults live healthy, well-informed lives and, in turn, make healthy, well-informed decisions. We must do this together!EP4Y is a community coalition dedicated to reducing underage drinking and drug use, as well as promoting healthy youth development. Visit EP4Y.org to learn more.