Exposure to ads can lead to teen drinking
RESEARCHERS have found exposure to alcohol advertising changes teens’ attitudes about alcohol and cause them to start drinking.
In the study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, researchers used a framework developed to show causality between tobacco advertising and youth smoking and applied it to alcohol advertising.
“The association of alcohol and tobacco advertising exposure and adolescent perceptions, knowledge of, and use of these substances are remarkably similar, adding to the much-needed evidence that the association between alcohol advertising and teen alcohol use is causal in nature,” said the study’s researcher Michael Weitzman from New York University in the US.
In this study, the researchers used one of the key elements of the Bradford Hill criteria – a well-known framework for determining causal links between environmental exposures and disease – to determine whether marketing is a cause of youth alcohol use, focusing on the criterion that relies on analogous relationships already established as causal.
They found that, in every aspect studied, the influence of tobacco and alcohol advertising on teenagers were analogous.
In addition, tobacco and alcohol companies use or have used movies, television, and sporting events as opportunities for advertising and product placement, with studies showing that exposure to smoking and drinking increases the risk for youth initiation.
The researchers also found that neighbourhoods with large numbers of tobacco retailers expose youth to more tobacco advertising and make it easier to buy cigarettes.
Finally, the researchers found that exposure to tobacco and alcohol advertising and teen knowledge, attitudes, initiation, and continued use of the products are extraordinarily similar.