Alcohol Companies Expose More Than Half of U.S. Adolescents to Alcohol Marketing

U.S. Adolescents’ Exposure to Alcohol Marketing: Self-Reported Exposure on the Internet and Traditional Media

Pilot data analysis

Study highlights

Study background

Youth exposure to alcohol marketing is linked with earlier initiation of alcohol use and increased consumption among youth who already consume alcohol.

Research in the U.S. has focused primarily on youth exposure to alcohol marketing through traditional media (e.g., TV, radio, magazines). Less is known about exposure through digital media.

Although a recent systematic review on digital alcohol marketing found a link between youth engaging with digital alcohol marketing and alcohol use, most of the data were from outside of the U.S.

Because alcohol marketing is increasingly digital, such as on the internet and social media, digital marketing can enable alcohol companies to learn more information about the audience and optimize the content and placement of advertisements. In addition, research on marketing of alcohol or other health-risk products suggests that there might be differences in exposure by racial/ethnic groups. For example, people who are Hispanic might be disproportionately exposed.

Therefore, this study examined self-reported exposure to alcohol marketing among adolescents in the U.S. The study also assessed youth alcohol marketing exposure by media type, including the internet, and by adolescents’ characteristics.

Study findings

In this study, more than half of the adolescents reported alcohol marketing exposure while watching TV, streaming videos, or going to the movies. This corroborates other research, such as on the magnitude of alcohol marketing exposure on cable TV.

In the U.S., alcohol marketing is primarily self-regulated, which has been found to lack effectiveness for protecting certain populations, including youth.

In addition, more than half of the adolescents reported being exposed to alcohol marketing while browsing the internet. Digital alcohol marketing brings unique considerations compared with other marketing platforms. For example, it allows for more interactive engagement with the audience being marketed to, and marketing can occur in various forms, including directly from companies or indirectly from peers or influencers—all of which can contribute to the normalization of alcohol consumption among youth.

Disparity in alcohol marketing exposure by adolescents’ race/ethnicity

This study identified a disparity in alcohol marketing exposure by adolescents’ race/ethnicity.

Hispanic adolescents were more likely to report alcohol marketing exposure for both media categories assessed than non-Hispanic White adolescents.

These results are consistent with those of previous studies. For example, one study found that Hispanic youth in the Los Angeles, California, area were exposed to nearly twice the amount of alcohol advertisements on TV, print, radio, outdoors, and online as non-Hispanic White youth.

These findings suggest that alcohol advertisements may be designed to appeal to certain subpopulation groups, which could have public health implications, given that youth exposure to alcohol use images or alcohol marketing is associated with alcohol initiation and increases in alcohol use.

Conclusions

More than half of U.S. adolescents reported sometimes or often being exposed to alcohol marketing while watching TV, streaming videos, or going to the movies or while browsing the internet, which increases the risk of underage alcohol use.

In addition, Hispanic adolescents had increased odds of reporting alcohol marketing exposure compared with their non-Hispanic White counterparts.

In light of these study findings and the U.S. Surgeon General’s recent advisory on potential harms associated with youth using social media, monitoring exposure to alcohol marketing, including digitally, can inform potential strategies to reduce exposure and racial/ethnic disparities in this risk factor for underage alcohol use. Policies regulating and limiting youth exposure to alcohol marketing in the U.S., along with consideration of evidence-based policies that increase the price of alcohol and reduce its availability overall, could further reduce alcohol use among youth.

Abstract

Introduction

Youth exposure to alcohol marketing is a risk factor for underage alcohol use. In the U.S., research documents the impact of youth exposure to alcohol marketing through traditional media (e.g., TV, radio) on underage alcohol use, with less known about digital alcohol marketing exposure.

This study aims to examine adolescents’ self-reported exposure to alcohol marketing on various types of media, including the internet, by their demographic characteristics.

Methods

Data were from the 2021 YouthStyles survey administered by Porter Novelli.

Adolescents aged 12–17 years (N=833) completed this national online survey. Two multivariable logistic regression models were conducted in October 2022–April 2023 to examine exposure to alcohol marketing on 2 categories of media (watching TV, streaming videos, or going to the movies or browsing the internet).

Models included race/ethnicity, age, gender, and past-week number of hours using the media category being assessed.

Results

More than half of the U.S. adolescents reported being sometimes or often exposed to alcohol marketing.

Hispanic adolescents had approximately 1.6 greater adjusted odds than non-Hispanic White adolescents of reporting sometimes or often being exposed to alcohol marketing while watching TV, streaming videos, or going to the movies and while browsing the internet.

As adolescents’ age increased, self-reported alcohol marketing exposure also increased for both media categories assessed.

Conclusions

Monitoring alcohol marketing exposure, including exposure on the internet, can inform efforts for reducing racial/ethnic disparities in underage alcohol use risk factors.

Source Website: AJPM