HERE you have another article, and today is 14th July
Alcohol abuse among youth is a major public health concern. Young alcoholics below 21 years of age are more often involved in fatal car accidents than older adults. Researchers in the US wanted to test whether alcohol consumption among the youth is affected by exposure to alcohol advertisements and the per capita expenditure on alcohol advertisement.
There are no federal restrictions on the alcohol industry regarding advertising norms. Many of the advertisements are aimed at the youth than the adults. The alcohol industry apparently spends over US$1 billion each year on measured media advertising, such as television, radio, print, and billboards in the USA alone (2005 figures).
Whether alcohol advertisements affect alcohol consumption among the youth has been an issue for debate for long among public health scientists. For this purpose, the scientists short listed individuals between 15 to 26 years of age on a random basis from households within top media markets in the US. Participants were asked 3 questions suggesting the frequency, average quantity, and the maximum quantity of alcohol they consumed. Similarly, the participants also had to disclose how often they came across some form of advertisement related to alcohol over a period of previoust 4 weeks. They also gathered information regarding the advertisement expenditure on television, radio, billboards and newspapers.
It was seen that those who were exposed to more alcohol advertisements on an average drank more. Every additional advertisement saw an increase in the number of drinks consumed by 1 percent.
Similarly, youth in markets where the per capita expenditure for alcohol advertising was greater, drank more. Every additional dollar spent per capita raised the number of drink consumption by 3 percent. Markets where the advertising expenditure per capita was higher saw more growth in drinking among older youth (25-years). The study results showed that the increased drinking among youth can be attributed to alcohol advertising.
According to the study investigators, 'Greater alcohol advertising expenditures in a market were related to both greater levels of youth drinking and steeper increases in drinking over time. Youth who lived in markets with more alcohol advertising drank more, increased their drinking levels more over time, and continued to increase drinking levels into their late 20s. Youth who lived in markets with less alcohol advertising drank less and showed a pattern of increasing their drinking modestly until their early 20s, when their drinking levels started to decline'.
They also asserted that 'seventh-grade alcohol advertising exposure was related to greater beer drinking in eighth grade in Los Angeles, California, and initiating drinking by ninth grade in South Dakota'.
They strongly disagreed with the claims that 'advertising is unrelated to youth drinking amounts and advertising at best causes brand switching, or it only affects those older than the legal drinking age, or drinking is effectively countered by current educational efforts'.
Read more: Alcohol Advertisements Increase Drinking Among Youth in USA | Medindia http://www.medindia.net/news/healthinfocus/Alcohol-Advertisements-Increase-Drinking-Among-Youth-in-USA-83243-1.htm#ixzz37TLuBqrX
It is undeniable the amount of teenangers that drink alcohol. It is seen as a normal thing nowadays, and it shouldn’t be so.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, advertisments have a lot of power in people. They can manipulate us in every sence.
So, it is not weird to see how a simple billborad can made someone drink more that he/she used to drink.
In my opinion, advertisments can have influence but it is not just that what makes every single person drink. There are other influences apart from those said above.
From my point of view advertisments don't have so much power in people. It is true that seeing someone having a good time while he is drinking in the tv can affect. However, I do not think that nowadays advertisments showing that alcohol is good are common.
ReplyDeleteOn the one side, young people are concerned about the problems that alcohol can cause. We have listened many times that alcohol is terribly dangerous, we already have the teory.
On the other side, acording to an article I read recently, teenagers drink to have fun and to disconnect from the daily routine. Futhermore, as it is seen as a normal thing, they do not give a lot of importance to the inconvenients.
In conclusion, despite the fact that advertisments affect on teenagers thinking, I think that the society affects more. I mean, if everyone does it and has a good time, why I am not going to do it?. So, it is hightime to change that way of thinking. To get it, other ways of having a good time should be made popular.
Consuming alcohol is normal nowadays and more if the people who do are teenagers and as Estibaliz has said it should not be a normal thing among youth.
ReplyDeleteIn one hand, I have to say that young people started drinkig earlier than we did, now when you go out a night you can see children, because they are still children, of about 13 years drinking alcohol.
In the other hand, I do not think advertisments have so much power in people as the article says. I know people who live in a village without a market or supermarket and who do not see alcohol advertisments as common as we do and drink more than I do living in a town where you can see alcohol in some shops and supermarkets.
To sum up, I think that these days children drink more alcohol not because they see it announced it is because they want to be more popular and feel an adult but being an adult is not that, and that is what they do not know.
As Estibaliz has said the amount of young people that drink alcohol nowadays it´s terribly, and it´s
ReplyDeletebecause it´s so widespread between them, although it,s something that we should change. In my opinion, when we start drinking, normally we begin because our friend has started or we have seen other people drinking and having fun with it, and we want feel it and believe us older than we are, actually this is absolutily wrong, like nerea has said.
According with the articule, some billboards can incite us to drink, because we are all the time seeing that is bad, and as in the adolescence is normal to want to prove new things, we want to see what
you feel drinking a bit of alcohol.
To conclude, I think that with more and more information about it, children aren´t going to start drinking later, so I don´t know what can we do to prevent this start. Maybe making popular other way of having fun is the only solution, because it´s really late to try to change the society way of thinking.
Nowadays youths start to consume alcohol very early and they do not realize the effects it can cause. Such as, accicents or illnesses. We have listened about the alcohol effects many times but we don't want to believe it is a bad thing for us.
ReplyDeleteIn this case billboards are blamed but I reckon that it is not the only cause. As Ana has said society has a lot of effect in the acts of young people. Everyones objective at that age is just to have fun and if they see how other people obtain their aim in that way Their are going to follow their steps.
To sump up, it is obvious that this will continue like now or worse. Maybe Irache is right and we just have to find another alternative to alcohol and achieve what we achieve with alcohol but in a less a dangerous way.
The fact that advertisments encourage drinking is true, however, teenagers don't start drinking because of that, they start drinking because it's seen as a normal thing. Of course, alcohol is a drug and it shouldn't be advertised.
ReplyDeleteThen, a thing that encourage people to drink and it could be considered a way of advertising it is that in some supermarkets they put alcohol in a shelf in the entrance so everybody can see the price in the entrance.
I think it would be a good idea to regulate the amount of advertisments and also to have a bigger control of the sale of this drug.