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Consequences and benefits of alcohol advertisement on social media

User RyanMac
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Answer:

Does alcohol advertising increase the overall

level of alcohol consumption? Does it predispose

children and adolescents to drinking? Although

these and other related questions have been raised

by public health advocates and echoed in public

opinion surveys, the evidence from research to

date is mixed and far from conclusive. In general,

studies based on economic analyses suggest that

advertising does not increase overall consumption,

but instead may encourage people to switch

beverage brands or types. At the same time,

research based on survey data indicates that

children who like alcohol advertisements intend

to drink more frequently as adults. While these

findings might offer some grounds for both

reassurance and concern, the limitations of the

research methods that have been used hinder the

ability to draw firm conclusions about cause and

effect in either case.

In recent years, public health advocates have

called for strict regulation or elimination of alcohol advertising (Mosher 1994), and communitylevel action has focused on reducing local alcohol

advertising (Woodruff 1996). Particular attention

has been devoted to how alcohol advertising

might affect young people (Atkin 1993) and to

the targeting of minority communities (Abramson

1992; Alaniz and Wilkes 1995; Scott et al. 1992).

A poll of public attitudes found that 57 percent

of the public support prohibiting alcoholic beverage advertisements on television, 64 percent

support advertising to counteract alcohol advertisements, and 41 percent support prohibiting

sports sponsorship by the alcohol industry

(Kaskutas 1993).

As described in this section, researchers have

examined the effects of alcohol advertising

through four main types of studies: experimental

research in controlled settings; econometric

analyses, which apply economic research techniques; surveys; and intervention studies of

“media literacy” programs that encourage

skepticism about advertisements. In general,

experimental studies based in laboratory settings

provide little consistent evidence that alcohol

advertising influences people’s drinking behaviors

or beliefs about alcohol and its effects (Kohn

and Smart 1984; Kohn et al. 1984; Lipsitz

1993; Slater et al. 1997; Sobell et al. 1986).

In addition, econometric studies of market data

have produced mixed results, with most showing

no significant relationship between advertising

and overall consumption levels (Fisher and Cook

1995; Gius 1996; Goel and Morey 1995; Nelson

and Moran 1995).

Survey research of children and adolescents, however, provides some evidence of links between

alcohol advertising and greater intentions to

drink, favorable beliefs about alcohol, and a

greater likelihood of drinking (Austin and Meili

1994; Austin and Nach-Ferguson 1995; Grube

1995; Grube and Wallack 1994; Wyllie et al.

1998a,b). Still, the survey study designs employed thus far have not been able to establish

whether, for example, the advertisements caused

the beliefs and behaviors, or whether preexisting

beliefs and behaviors led to an increased awareness of the advertisements. Media literacy

training may increase the ability of children

and adolescents to offer counterarguments to

messages in alcohol advertisements (Austin and

Johnson 1997a,b; Slater et al. 1996a), but studies

have not yet measured whether these effects

persist beyond a short term.

User Alex Bochkarev
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