Researchers say they've found an association between alcohol advertisements on television and drinking, binge drinking and hazardous drinking behaviors among underage youth.
Researchers at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College say they used telephone and online surveys in 2011 and 2013 to gauge how much influence TV advertising had on drinking behaviors among young people under the legal age for drinking and those of drinking age.
The study found a link between the numbers of television ads for alcohol teens watched and the likelihood of their indulging in problem drinking, they report in the most recent issue of JAMA Pediatrics.
Of the young people surveyed, alcohol ads on television were seen by about 23 percent aged 15 to 17, almost 23 percent of those aged 18 to 20, and almost 26 percent of those aged 21 to 23, the researchers found.
The researchers created an "alcohol receptivity score" based on the participants' having been exposed to the ad, liking it and correctly identifying which brand was being advertised.
A tendency toward binge drinking or hazardous drinking was seen among 29 percent and 18 percent, respectively, of those aged 15 to 17, and among 29 percent and 19 percent, respectively, of those aged 18 to 20.
"The alcohol industry claims that their advertising self-regulation program protects underage youths from seeing their ads," says study co-author Susanne E. Tanski. "Our study indicates that it does not."
Alcohol is the drug most commonly used by young people, the study authors note; in the 2013 survey, 66.2 percent of U.S. high school students reported trying alcohol, while 20.8 percent reported a recent incident of binge drinking.
Alcohol producers spend billions of dollars in the U.S. every year advertising their products, unlike the cigarette industry, which voluntarily ceased advertising on television in 1969.
"Alcohol companies claim their advertising does not affect underage drinking -- that instead it is parents and friends that are the culprits," says study senior author James D. Sargent, MD. "This study suggests otherwise -- that underage youths are exposed to and engaged by alcohol marketing and this prompts initiation of drinking as well as transitions from trying to hazardous drinking."
While the study wasn't designed to establish cause-and-effect, the findings strongly suggest the more receptive teens are to alcohol ads on TV, the more likely they will start drinking, or to advance from drinking to binge or hazardous drinking behavior, the study authors say.
