Are alcohol companies marketing to underage drinkers through magazine ads? No, say trade groups representing makers of wine, beer, and distilled spirits. And, indeed, the Federal Trade Commission backs them up. In a 2008 report, the FTC found that most alcohol ads followed the industry-set standard of appearing only in publications with a predominantly adult readership (70 percent of readers age 21 or older). However, a new study suggests these findings may actually mask some highly targeted marketing of alcohol to young people.
The researchers tallied up all the alcohol ads that appeared in 118 magazines over a five-year period (2002 to 2006). They found 13,513 ads in total. They then identified which ads promoted alcoholic beverages shown to be most popular among underage drinkers: namely, flavored alcohol drinks, premium beer, low-calorie beer, rum, and vodka. This was a novel twist on previous research, which had looked at ads for all types of alcohol collectively. The researchers theorized that such broad groupings of ads might have obscured a connection between youth readership and the placement of ads for youth-preferred drinks. The new findings bear this out.
The researchers discovered that as the percentage of youth readers (ages 12 to 20) increased in magazines, so too did the number of ads promoting beverages popular with underage drinkers. For example:
• In magazines with few youth readers, ads for youth-preferred beverages were about as common as ads for alcoholic drinks not popular among young people
• However, when youth readers made up 40 percent of a magazine's readership, ads for flavored beverages and other underage favorites were four times more common than ads for the other alcoholic drinks.
Some might argue that alcohol companies chose to place these ads in these magazines because they attract young adult readers (ages 21 to 34) who also favor these beverages. However, when researchers looked at youth and young adult readerships separately, the correlation between youth readers and alcohol advertising remained independently strong, which suggests this isn't a chance connection.
One of the researchers puts it a bit more bluntly: "Alcohol companies are deceiving us," says Michael Siegel, MD, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University School of Public Health. "Contrary to their public statements, they are targeting youths through their advertising. They are saying one thing, but doing another."
What you need to know. The FTC doesn't directly regulate alcohol advertising. Instead, the alcohol industry has its own codes of practice, and adherence to these codes is monitored by industry review boards. But are these measures adequate? Perhaps not. This study makes a compelling case that alcohol companies continue to serve up marketing messages to sway the underaged.
—Sophie Ramsey, patient editor, BMJ Group
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